| Notes |
- Edward Thomas was the only son of Samuel S. Miles Thomas and wife Martha Patsy Edwards of Newberry County, South Carolina. Martha was the daughter of John Edwards and Mary Turner Edwards whose parents William Turner and Elizabeth Spraggins came to Newberry from Maryland by way of Halifax County, Virginia (ref., Annals of Newberry [published 1858] by Hon. John Belton O’Neall, pp.17, 49-50, 522). Elizabeth Spraggins was the daughter of William Spraggins and Martha Abney, the daughter of Dannett Abney and Mary Lee.
John Belton O'Neall, author of "Annals of Newberry," was a son of Hugh O'Neall whose brother Henry Frost O'Neall married Mary Miles, daughter of Samuel Miles (1750-1807) of Newberry, who was a member of the Quaker community.
The father of Samuel S. Miles Thomas is unverified but DNA studies strongly indicate he was Isaac Thomas (who married Mary Davies b. c1741), or Isaac's brother if that brother also married a Davies. Some family trees show Isaac as a son of Stephen Thomas, son of Tristram Thomas Jr. and connection back to a long Welsh ancestry. But a family tree by Craig Beeman said that Isaac's brothers were Abel, John, Nehemiah, and Timothy; though this tree lists their father was possibly Dr. Robert Sands Thomas or Evan Thomas.
Recent YDNA test results for descendants of Samuel S. Miles Thomas show them matching descendants of four sons of Isaac Thomas, shown as the son of Tristram Thomas Jr. MtDna results also match descendants of a daughter of Isaac Thomas.
Edward Thomas had two sisters, Elizabeth Thomas (circa 1785-1831) who married (18 Aug 1804 in Washington County, Maryland) Gabriel McCool, and Mary "Polly" Thomas (c1790-1830) who married before 1820 Archibald Irvin. Elizabeth Thomas married in Washington County, Maryland on August 18, 1804 to Gabriel McCool, son of James Adams McCool and Deborah Jay. The fact that this generation of Thomases went back to Maryland to visit relatives, to get married (possibly through an arranged marriage), perhaps also to be educated, then returned to Newberry, South Carolina, indicates an affluence that few Americans enjoyed during this period.
Elizabeth Thomas and Gabriel McCool had one daughter, Harriet, who married her cousin Jackson Turner. They and their seven children migrated to Moorefield, Arkansas around 1869. A family story said that sons William, Robert, and Joe Turner were interested in the possibility of a racetrack that was to be built at Moorefield and induced the entire family to move there, although the racetrack never materialized. The family story indicates that the Turners' finances were not too adversely affected by the Civil War.
On Jan. 31, 1820, Gabriel McCool, Archibald Irvin, and Edward Thomas filed suit in Newberry against Edward Thomas's aunt Mrs. Margaret Edwards whose husband had died before settling the estate of Edward's mother Mary Turner Edwards, of which he was executor, and distributing the rightful shares of the property to his siblings or their heirs. Margaret was refusing to relinquish the property her husband left, claiming it as her own. The same year she left South Carolina and joined a Quaker community in Ohio. A genealogical records researcher described her as having "fled to Ohio."
Gabriel McCool was a Quaker, as was Samuel Miles of Newberry, probably the namesake of Samuel S. Miles Thomas. These were all associated with other Quaker families, so it is likely that Samuel S. Miles Thomas was a Quaker as well and perhaps a member of the very prominent Quaker Thomas family of Newberry, connecting back to the Welsh emigrant Tristram Thomas of Maryland. Several of this family settled in Orange Co., N.C., and later Marlboro Co., S.C., and most later became Baptists. There was an Edward Thomas born in 1761 in Marlboro Co., referenced in the Bush River Monthly Meeting. He may have been a brother of Samuel S. Miles Thomas or no relation. (Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy by Hinshaw, Volume I; also see Ancestors and Descendants of Tristram Thomas of Maryland, by Betty Ratliff Carson and Howard S. Hazlewood.)
Bush River Monthly Meeting, in Newberry County, S.C., was established in 1770. Dr. Stephen B Weeks, in 'Southern Quakers and Slavery,' page 115, said: "The group of meetings clustering around Bush River was the most important in South Carolina."
1812: Edward Thomas was probably the same Edward Thomas who enlisted in Youngblood's 1st S.C. Regiment, South Carolina Militia during the War of 1812. Also in this unit were the Lundy brothers, Hezekiah and William Lundy, "the first white settlers in the Lineville area of Clay County." The Lundys "were given land grants for their service in the War of 1812 on Sep 9, 1835, along with Mark E. Moore and Robert C. Wilson."
Edward Thomas married Sarah (Anderson?) in South Carolina or Georgia. She was 15 years younger, born in Georgia. Edward's older children were born in S.C., the younger ones in Georgia, so Sarah may have been a second wife. Some family trees give Sarah's maiden name as Anderson, though probably guessing.
1826-28 Edward Thomas moved to Georgia.
1830 census Newton County, Georgia: living next door to his sister Mary Thomas Irvin and her husband Archibald Irvin (born 1788 Ireland).
1840 Newton County, Georgia: still there next door to Archibald Irvin.
1842 (1841-44): Edward and Sarah Thomas and brother-in-law Archibald Irvin moved with their families to Goldville, Tallapoosa County, Alabama, when gold was discovered there in 1842. Archibald Irvin moved by 1850 to nearby Dudleyville, Chambers Co., AL.
The town of Goldville boomed in 1842 but died by 1849 when most of the prospectors abandoned it and headed to California for the great gold rush there.
1850: Edward and Sarah Thomas lived in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. He was blind and his sons operated his farm. Married sons lived next door. It is thought that the Thomases and Irvins worked at mining but returned to farming after that didn't pan out. Adeline, Caroline and Martha Thomas all married rather late. They probably helped take care of their parents until their deaths.
Edward and Sarah Thomas were members of Bethlehem-New Salem Baptist church at New Site, Tallapoosa County, from 21 March 1846 to 25 Dec 1852 when they were dismissed by letter. Their son Gabriel Thomas and wife Elizabeth were also members until the Christmas 1852 dismissal also (see Find A Grave Memorial# 94358371).
The children of Edward and Sarah Thomas were:
1. Adaline Thomas born 1817 SC m.after 1850 Jack Porter, had 1 son, Cornelius. John Porter is on the 1855 Alabama State census in Tallapoosa Co.
2. Gabriel born 1819 SC m. Elizabeth Smith
3. Samuel S. Miles "Archie" Thomas born 1821 SC m. Rebecca Eliz. Parker
4. Caroline Thomas born 1825 SC (never married)
5. David A. Thomas born 1829 GA m. Ailsey McCain
6. Cornelius Thomas born 1831 GA m. E. & had 4 daughters
7. George Edward Thomas born 1833 m. Mary Ann Brown
8. Martha Ann Eda Thomas (1835 GA-1900) m. John Patty
In 1860 "Eda Thomas" was living with her older brother David Thomas in Randolph Co., AL., single, and her age listed as 18 although she was 25. In 1862 she married John Patty and according to her grandnephew Samuel Thomas, had children Wm. Riley, Adeline, Nancy, Benny, Sarah, "and possibly another child of whom we have no record." (The Thomas Family, c1940, by Prentice W. Thomas, p. 3.) There were actually two more daughters: Martha Margaret and Mary Jane.
John Patty (1840-1901) who married Martha Thomas (15 Apr 1862 Calhoun Co, AL) was born in Greene Co., S.C.
Adline (Connell) Hulsey wrote: "Mr. Bill Abney...told me that John Patty was the oldest son of Charles W. [William] Patty & Nancy Caroline [Thomas] Patty." Bill Abney was a cousin of the Thomases. Charles and Nancy Caroline Patty lived at Edwardsville, Cleburn Co., AL. Some say Nancy's maiden name was Nabors and others say Thomas; some say she may have married first a Thomas. Martha A.E. Thomas, went to visit or live with them 1860-62. Charles W. Patty was a son of Charles Patty and Barbara Turner (1799-1864), daughter of William Turner, so John Patty and Martha Thomas apparently were cousins.
His great-uncle James Patty (brother of Charles Patty's father Jesse) died in Newberry in 1795 where his estate was appraised by Martha Thomas Patty's uncle, Gabriel McCool (ref., Newberry County, South Carolina: Historical and Genealogical Annals By George Leland Summer, page 463; Newberry Will Book, p.312.)
Summer, page 335 also mentions: "Patsy Edwards married THOMAS (Samuel S. Miles Thomas) and had children: Edward, Polly, and Elizabeth McCool. Gabriel D. Darlington and David N. Darlington were in Adams County, Ohio, who were, probably, sons-in-law of John Edwards."
Line of Descent:
King John of England
+ Isabelle Taillefer
Henry III, King of England
+ Eleanor of Provence
Edward I, King of England
+ Eleanor of Castile
Joan of Acre
+ Gilbert de Clare
Margaret de Clare
+ Hugh Audley
Margaret Audley
+ Ralph Stafford
Katherine Stafford
+ John Sutton III
John Sutton IV
+ Joan
John Sutton V
+ Constance Blount
John Sutton VI
+ Eliz Berkeley
Eleanor Sutton
+ George Stanley
Anne Stanley
+John Wolesley
Ellen Wolesley
+ George Abney
Edmund Abney
+ Catherine Ludlam
Paul Abney
+ Mary Brooksby
George Abney
+ Bathusa Dannett
DANNETT ABNEY
+ Mary Lee
Martha Abney
+ William Spraggins
Elizabeth Spraggins, Newberry, S.C.
+ William Turner
Mary Turner
+ John Edwards
Martha “Patsy” Edwards
+ Samuel S. Miles Thomas, Newberry, S.C.
Edward Thomas
+ Sarah A. Thomas
Death date and interment unverified. The family history said he lived and died "near Dadeville," which was actually north of there near Goldville, near the Clay County line (until 1870 this was Talladega County). His sons lived adjoining him and helping run the farm together, and all of them moved away after his death. The family scattered by 1860 and only a few of them are found in the 1860 census.
Edward Thomas's eldest son Gabriel moved about 15 miles northwest to Millerville in Talladega County (now Clay) and died at his farm near Millerville Baptist Church. Either Edward or Sarah, or both, could have moved with Gabriel and died at Millerville for all we know. In 1856 Edward's son David married in Talladega County. In 1860 David and wife were living in Randolph County with his younger sister Martha Ann Eda Thomas. In 1862 several of the Thomas family were in Cleburne County. Whether David and Sarah both had died by 1862 and the remaining family went there is not known.
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1783 - 1855 (72 years)