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The Thomas Book (1896)

Lawrence Buckley Thomas's genealogy of Sir Rhys ap Thomas and his descendants, photographed at the British Library: the title page, the coats of arms, and two appendix pages naming John Thomases of Virginia.

Date
1896
Place
New York; photographed at the British Library, London
People
John Thomas, the immigrant (b. 1585 or 1606; in Virginia by 1610 or 1622)
Type
Book · Published account
Citation
Lawrence Buckley Thomas, The Thomas Book: Giving the Genealogies of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, K.G., the Thomas Family Descended from Him, and of Some Allied Families (New York: Henry T. Thomas Co., 1896).
Held by
British Library, London
The title page of The Thomas Book, by Lawrence Buckley Thomas, D.D.
The title page. Full size (3024 × 4032)
Appendix IV of The Thomas Book, Thomas Coats of Arms, headed by the arms of William Thomas of Chester: a chevron between three ravens.
Appendix IV, Thomas coats of arms. Sir Rhys ap Thomas's arms are a chevron between three ravens. Full size (3024 × 4032)
Page 572 of The Thomas Book, with appendix entries for several men named John Thomas.
Appendix, p. 572, including John Thomas of Isle of Wight County, Virginia. Full size (3024 × 4032)
Page 589 of The Thomas Book, abstracting Virginia land patents granted to men named Thomas.
Appendix, p. 589, abstracting Virginia land patents, including two to a John Thomas. Full size (1400 × 1867)

The Thomas Book is where the family’s Welsh ancestry comes from, but nothing in it connects our line to the Welsh Thomases: the link rests on the family’s use of the same coat of arms. Its appendix abstracts records for many men named John Thomas, and two of them may be the immigrant. The post on the first Thomases in Virginia sets out what each source claims.

Transcriptions

From p. 572:

THOMAS, JOHN, of Isle of Wight Co., Va., or that section of the State, had a son, John, who removed to North Carolina and m. Mollie Edwards, nearly related to the Hon. Wedon Edwards, of Franklin Co., N. C., and had a son, Jordan, m. Ann, dau. of Gabriel and Sarah (Richmond) Long, and granddau. of Colonel Nicholas Long, of Quankey, Halifax Co., N. C., and Rebecca Hill, of Virginia. They had a son, William George, of Wilmington, N. C., living in 1876. Authority: Family papers, through Mr. William G. Thomas.

From p. 589:

THOMAS, JOHN, No. 2, p. 158. 350 acres on the north side of Queen’s Creek in York Co.; west of lands of Joseph Croshaw; 300 acres formerly granted to John Broach and assigned 17th 8ber, 1649. 50 acres for wife Dorothy.

THOMAS, JOHN, No. 3, p. 300. 174 acres in “Nanzemon” Co., on the east side of Newtowne Haven River, near his own land and land of Mr. Jordan and Thos. Best; 150 acres formerly granted to Peter Mountague, December 8, 1645, and assigned; 24 acres for one transport, November 19, 1654.

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