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- Tracey, Grace L. & Dern, John P., Pioneers of Old Monocacy: The Early Settlement of Frederick County, Maryland, 1721-1743, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1987, p. 87:
Evan Thomas was a Quaker minister who came from Wales in 1719. His son Evan Thomas, Jr. married the daughter of Alexander Rodd [Ross].
(2) O?Dell, Cecil, Pioneers of Old Frederick County, Virginia, Marceline, MO: Walsworth Publishing Company, 1995, pp. 161-163:
THOMAS, EVAN
Evan Thomas was born (1685 c.) in Wales and came to Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania about 1719. Evan and his wife Catherine moved to Goshen Monthly Meeting in Chester County, Pennsylvania (present-day Delaware County). While residing there, they witnessed the marriages of Jane Thomas to John Yarnall (on the 31st day, 8th month, 1728) and Watkins Thomas (son of Evan Thomas and his wife Gwen of Eastown Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania (present-day Delaware County) to Elizabeth Bevan on the 2nd day, 4th month, 1728/29. Both marriages took place at the Newtown Township public meeting house of Quakers.
An Evan Thomas was taxed in the years 1715 through 1726, and 1737 through 1739 in Eastown Township and in Uwchlan Township in 1724, 1725 and 1726, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Sometime after 1726 and before 18 October 1734, Evan moved to Virginia when he had ?1,040 acres on west side of Opechon? surveyed. On 12 November 1735, he received a patent from the Colony for 1,014 acres. . . . This land is located in Frederick County, Virginia on Turkey Run (a branch of Opequon Creek) with County Highway 672, from Clearbrook, Virginia, to Brucetown, Virginia, on the southernmost part; County Highway 668 crossing near the center of the tract; County Highway 671 on the west side and U.S. Highway 11 on the far west side.
On 3 March 1745, Evan Thomas Sr. sold 201 acres to his son Evan (Jr.) for 25 pounds. Evan Thomas Jr. and his wife Albana/Albenah/Alebanah Ross, daughter of Alexander and Catherine Ross, sold 186 acres to James Keith for 125 pounds on 13 June 1764.
Evan Sr. was deceased by 1 April 1755 when his will was proved in Frederick County, Virginia (written ?18th day, 6th month called June, 1753") listing sons; Evan Jr., John, Thomas and Enos, and daughter Martha. His son John was named executor with witnesses John Gore, John Bailey and John Smith.
Evan had another daughter Mary who married John Hiatt Jr. (son of the John Hiatt at ?Opeckan?) on the 12th day, 2nd month 1744. John Hiatt and Mary received a certificate from Hopewell Monthly Meeting on the 5th day, 6th month 1751, and were received at Cane Creek Monthly Meeting on 7th day, 10th month 1751 (Alamance County, North Carolina).
Enos Thomas received 240 acres from the estate of his father and sold 40 acres of the 1,014 acres to John Hiatt Jr. on 28 September 1755 for 10 pounds. On 25 September 1761, Enos bought 126 acres, adjacent east of the 1,014 acres, from John Hiatt Jr. for 12 pounds.
Enos and his wife Rachel had three children: Katherine (b. 9 January 1752), Evan (b. 4 April 1756, d. 30 April 1769) and Phebe (b. 17 September 1758).
Enos Thomas? will was written on 24 February 1763, he died on 23 March 1763 and his will was proved on 3 May 1763 in Frederick County, Virginia. His will directed that the 126 acres from Hiatt and 50 acres of the land where he lived (part of the 1,014-acre tract) be sold to pay his debts and funeral expenses. The remainder of monies were devised to two daughters (Catherine and Phebe Thomas) to be paid at the age of 18. The remainder of the tract ?where he lives? went to son Evan Thomas, with wife Rachael to have the use of one-third of the tract for her natural life during her widowhood. Evan was to pay his two sisters 10 pounds each within one year after he reached the age of 21. His wife Rachel was appointed executor and the will was witnessed by William Jollife, Evan Thomas and Nathan Littler. Rachel Thomas, ?Executrix,? sold the 50 acres (part of 200 acres willed to Enos by his father Evan Thomas) on 1 January 1773 to David Ross for 40 pounds, 15 shillings.
John Thomas (b. 1685), son of Evan, and Catherine Thomas sold 36 acres (part of the 400-acre tract willed to John by his father and also part of the 1,014-acre patent land), to Jacob Chandler for five pounds on 20 January 1766. Chandler sold the 36 acres on 6 April 1767 to Abel Walker for 35 pounds. On 6 August 1782, ?John Thomas and Else his wife of County of Gilford in the State of North Carolina being for and in consideration of one Thousand pounds Silver and Gold paid by Richard Ridgway of County of Berkeley in Virginia doth release unto said Richard Ridgway part of the Land devised by the said Will. . . . We the said John Thomas and Else his wife appoint our Friends Able Walker and David Ross of the County of Frederick our True and Lawfull Attorneys for us and in our names . . . to sign seal and acknowledge unto said Richard Ridgway a Good Lawfull and Sufficient Deeds of Lease & Release.?
(3) Frederick County, Virginia, Hopewell Friends History [database online], Orem, UT: Ancestry.com, 1997:
In the State Land Office at Richmond are to be found recorded in Book 16, pages 315-415, inclusive, the patents issued to the settlers who came to the Shenandoah Valley under authority of the Orders in Council made to Alexander Ross and Morgan Bryan. All bear date of November 12, 1735, and recite that the grantee is one of the seventy families brought in by them, and excepting location and acreage, are alike in wording and conditions, and are signed by William Gooch, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony at that time. . . .
These patents were issued under the seal of the colony and were grants from the Crown, free of any obligation of feudal services to the Fairfax family, who claimed the land as lords proprietors of the Northern Neck of Virginia. The sixth Lord Fairfax, who later established his home at Greenway Court near Winchester, instituted many suits against early settlers in the Shenandoah Valley, but it does not appear that any Friend who claimed under Ross and Bryan was ever ejected from his land.
Although it is specifically stated that seventy families have been "by them brought in to our said Colony and settled upon the Lands in the said Order mentioned," only thirty-six patents issued to thirty-four grantees have been found. The names of these grantees are here given, together with sundry information gathered from the minutes of various Friends' meetings, from the records of the counties of Orange and Frederick in Virginia, and Chester County, Pennsylvania. . . .
Evan Thomas, 1014 acres. This land joined the plantation of Alexander Ross on the northeast. Evan Thomas came from Wales about the year 1719 and settled in Philadelphia County, Pa., within the verge of Gwynedd Monthly Meeting. In 1726 Evan Thomas and his wife Catherine removed to Goshen Monthly Meeting, and his certificate states that he was a minister. His son, Evan Thomas Jr., married Albenah, daughter of Alexander Ross and Catherine his wife, and was one of the early trustees of Hopewell Monthly Meeting. The will of Evan Thomas was dated "the 18th of the 6th month, called June, 1753," and was probated April 1, 1755. He mentions in his will his sons Evan Jr., John, Thomas, and Enos, and his daughter Martha, and appoints his son John Thomas executor. The witnesses were John Gore, John Bailey, and John Smith.
Evan Thomas was, perhaps, the first minister residing within the verge of Hopewell Monthly Meeting, and his family continued prominent among Friends for many years. The following memorial of Evan Thomas appears in the minute book of Hopewell Monthly Meeting:
He was born in Wales and educated in profession with the Church of England; but in tender years joined in society with friends; and proving faithful to the gift and measure of grace bestowed upon him, by the great giver of every good and perfect gift, he came to be early engaged in the work of the ministry, and was a serviceable instrument; being also a preacher in life and conversation, remarkably meek, humble and grave in his deportment. He was zealous of the honor of God and promotion of his blessed truth, and serviceable among friends, being one of the first settlers in these parts, and a constant attender of our meetings whilst in health. He died in a very serene frame of spirit, on the 4th day of the second month 1755, aged about seventy years.
http://frostandgilchrist.com/getperson.php?personID=I9812&tree=frostinaz01
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