Brick Wall Ancestor | #8 Jesse Thomas Sr

We all have them! Those stubborn ancestors that refuse to come out of hiding. No matter how much coaxing we do! Well, I think it's time to bring them out of the shadows - put their redacted story out there - another piece of the puzzle could be lurking just around the (cyber) corner, in someone's basement, or closet, or sitting in a box on a bookshelf ...... You never, ever know where that loose chink will manifest, the one that allows you to push out one brick, then the next. Food for thought. So without further ado....


Brick Wall Ancestor | # 8 Jesse Thomas Sr

Jesse Thomas seems to magically appear in Chester Co, PA in 1810, prior to that time he is a complete mystery. What I do "know" is information gleaned from other researchers, none of it is sourced. The rumor floating around is that Jesse was born in 1786 in Chester Co, PA to unknown parents. He married, supposedly in 1808 in Fallowfield Meeting Hall, Chester Co, PA; Rebecah Hampton, Daughter of Jonathan Hampton and Elizabeth Phillips. The Hampton relationship has been substantiated through numerous DNA matches with other Hampton descendants.

Jesse appears on the 1810 US Census in New London, Chester Co, PA with three household residents; a male aged 16 thru 25, a female aged 16 thru 25 and a female aged under 10.

In March 1820 Jesse and Rebecah request removal from their Fallowfield Monthly Meeting in Chester Co, PA to join the Stillwater Monthly Meeting in Washington Co, OH. Did they actually live in Ohio at the time of the request?

I did find a Jesse Thomas on the 1840 US Census in Washington Co, OH, the household includes one male aged 50 thru 59, two males 10 thru 14, one female 50 thru 59, two females 20 thru 29 and two females 15 thru 19.

According to Quaker records Jesse died February 20th 1842 at Plymouth, Washington Co, OH. Aged 55.

End of story.

That's one HUGE brick wall!


GENEALOGY

Jesse Thomas  b. say 1786 d. 20 Feb 1842 m. say 1808 Rebecah Hampton, daughter of Jonathan Hampton and Elizabeth Phillips, b. 12 May 1790 d.  20 Dec 1850

children:

• Elizabeth Thomas b. 1 Jan 1810 PA d. UNK
• Sarah Thomas b. 17 Apr 1811 PA d.  UNK
• Mary Ann Thomas b. 7 Mar 1813 PA  d. UNK m. Walter Stanley
• Joseph Thomas b. 5 Dec 1814 PA d. UNK m. Mary G Parker 
• Debora Thomas b. 27 Mar 1817 PA d. UNK m. Josiah Walton
• Philena Thomas b. 9 Oct 1819 PA d. 22 Jan 1894 m. Seth Williams
• Joanna Thomas b. 23 Jan 1822 OH d. UNK 
• Jonathan H Thomas b. 25 Mar 1824 OH d. UNK m. Hannah E Henry
• Eli Thomas b. 19 May 1826 OH d. 18 Nov 1855 m. Adeline McConnell
• Jesse Thomas Jr b. 28 Jul 1828 OH d. 19 Sep 1907 m. Joanna Bell Stanley
• David Thomas b. 26 Jun 1831 OH d. 11 Apr 1832

There were 30 'Thomas' heads of household in Chester County PA on the 1800 census, nine with a male child between the age of 10 and 15. Family tradition says the Thomas family was of Welsh origin. Was Jesse born in PA or did he immigrate as a child or young adult? Was Jesse's family Quaker? Or did Jesse join the faith upon his marriage to Rebecah? 

As is typical, more questions than answers. 

And the answers are out there ...... somewhere.

©2017 Anne Faulkner - AncestorArchaeology.net, All Rights Reserved

Notes From My Grandmother | Thomas Lineage and Genealogy, Part 1

Somehow, much of my grandmother's hand written and (badly) typed notes and research wound up in my possession. Traveling from Chicago to Los Angeles and back to Chicago again. It sat, in the dark of my mother's closet, until my dad passed and my mom decided to begin her great purge. Knowing I had picked up the torch, the next generation to pursue the Greatest Hobby on Earth, the papers came to live with me. Unsure for many years on just what to do with them, I have decided to bring them out and share them with you - transcribed, of course - no one can read my grandmother's handwriting! But in her own words; mistakes, rambling sentences, and all. I think she will be pleased her work and her writing are once again out in the light.

As THOMAS was my grandmother's married name she did much less research. However, since it was her children's surname she did do a fair amount. When I inherited her box of work I found all that she had uncovered. I have been able to leaf out the branches somewhat, but am still butting my head against the same brick wall that stymied her. Using the work-around of tracing the women, and being afforded the luxury of internet access, I have been able to take the branch farther, and to more exciting places, than she was able to accomplish pre 1980.

The earliest Thomas in America, according to my grandmother, was Samuel. I do not know where she got this information or where this Samuel was said to reside. She also had notes about a Thomas Thomas. According to her notes he both signed the Magna Carta AND was a Quaker in Buck's county PA.

Must have had a time machine too.

Other notes hint that the Thomas's came from Wales.

We really start our Thomas story with Jesse. Jesse can be proved down the line. And as much as I wanted to keep this series strictly about my grandmother's research, I will be bending that rule for the Thomas study. Grandma had a big brick wall with the Thomases that she was unable to bust in her lifetime. Or, perhaps, she eventually focused her research on her lineage - she was very busy joining lineage societies!

At any rate, she knew Jesse Thomas and his wife Rebecca were her husband's great grandparents. She knew that they were Quakers. She knew that they lived in Wesley Township and Washington County, Ohio. She knew they had a son named Jesse.

That's all she knew.

So, let's begin this story with what I know. Thanks to modern-day technology and the increasing availability of archived images, records, books, etc, this story can travel a little farther back in time.

Jesse Thomas is still a brick wall, however.

From the online Quaker meeting records it is learned that Jesse Thomas was born in June 1786 at Chester, PA. Neither an actual birth record, or the names of Jesse's parents have been found to date.

Through some excellent sleuthing by my cousin, we learned that Jesse married Rebecah Hampton, of the Bucks County Hamptons, September 7, 1808 at the Fallowfield MH in Chester PA. Again, we have not found a marriage record ... yet. A trip to Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore or Haverford will most likely be in our future.

DNA further confirms that we are on the right track.



GENEALOGY

Jesse Thomas Sr. b. 6/1786 in Chester, PA
                              d. 2/1842 in Athens, OH
                              m. 9/7/1808 to Rebecah Hampton,
                                                daughter of Jonathan Hampton and Elizabeth Phillips
                                                     b. 5/12/1790 in Bucks Co, PA
                                                     d. 12/20/1850 in Washington Co, OH


children:

Elizabeth b. 1810
Sarah b. 1811
Mary Ann b. 1813
Joseph b. 1814
Deborah b. 1817 d. q862
Philena b. 1819
Joanna b. 1822
Jonathan b. 1824 d. 1825
Eli b. 1826 d. UNK m. Adeline McConnell
JESSE b. 1828 d. 1907 m. 5/1/1851 to Joanna Bell Stanley
David b. 1831 d. 1832

Thanks to the excellent book: Hampton history; an account of the Pennsylvania Hamptons in America in the line of John Hampton, Jr., of Wrightstown; with an appendix treating of some other branches by John Hampton Doan, I was able to take the female side of this union back five more generations!


As I always say "genealogy, the greatest hobby on earth"!

to be continued ........

©2016 Anne Faulkner - AncestorArchaeology.net, All Rights Reserved

©1980 Elizabeth Twining Potwin Thomas - private collection