Holbrook line: Thomas Stansbury 1714-1798

Thomas Stansbury is especially important to this family because of the woman he chose to marry.  She is a descendant of a gateway ancestor, one of several who connect us in a long line back to royalty, history, and fun.  (I love gateway ancestors, only because there are paper trails and it's relatively easy to learn about the connections.  I love my plain Jane (or Joe) ancestors, too, but many of them I will never even have names for.)

Thomas is sometimes known as Thomas Stansbury Jr., because his parents were Thomas and Jane Dixon Hayes Stansbury.  He was born in Saint Paul's Parish, Baltimore County, Maryland on April 24, 1714, which is now part of the Baltimore Historic District.  At the time of the church's founding in 192, it was in a more rural setting, close to the Patapsco River.  He was one of at least six children. 

Thomas married Hannah Gorsuch, daughter of Charles and Sarah Cole Gorsuch and descendant of Anne Lovelace Gorsuch, the gateway ancestor, on March 2, 1734/35 in St. Paul's, Baltimore. The couple had at least twelve children together, ten of whom are mentioned in Thomas's will.  He left nothing to daughter Jane, apparently because she was already wealthy, and one child had died early.

Although Thomas is listed as a patriot on the DAR website, he apparently had some difficulty in making an early decision about which side of the Revolutionary War to support.  He was called before a "Committee" on May 19, 1776, because he had been reported as making comments favorable to the British.  He was cleared of that suspicion and thanked for his zeal in supporting his country (which would become, but was not yet, the USA).  The church the Stansbury family attended was Anglican and these families, as a whole, were more likely to support the British side than, say, our New England ancestors who descended from Puritans.  By 1778, Thomas had definitely made up his mind when he took the oath of fidelity and support required by the state of Maryland of all voters and of all office holders. 

Thomas was a plantation owner, and had a few slaves listed in his "personal property" inventory.  It appears that at one time he had owned a great deal of land but I've not found a will to see whether he distributed the land in his will, or land records to see whether he had disposed of it earlier.  Land that he may have owned at one time included "Dixon's Neck" of 450 acres, "Stansbury's Good Luck" of 90 acres, "Father's Care" of 100 acres, "Jerrico" of 700 acres, "Luke's Goodwill" of 111 acres, and 650 acres of "Franklin's Purchase".  I haven't done the research to back this up and it's possible that some of these lands belonged to another Thomas Stansbury.  Nor do I know whether he owned them all at once, or serially.  It does indicate, however, that land perhaps needed to be replenished, perhaps because he was growing a crop like tobacco, which could generally be planted only three years in a row, and then the land needed to rest for ten years or so.  It's also possible that he was a wealthy man.

Thomas died June 15, 1798 in Baltimore.  I haven't yet found his will, but I did locate his inventory filed on August 6, 1798.  Thomas was 84 years old when he died, but he still "owned" 6 Negroes, as they were called.  He owned horses and swine, tools, a few crops (17 bushels of corn), and some, but not a lot, furniture and household goods. He also owned a gun, a rifle, and an old sword. Perhaps he was already downsizing and had given some of his property to children or grandchildren.  Hannah lived until September of 1800 but I didn't locate her by name in the 1800 census.  She was likely living with one of her children. 

It's interesting to think about Thomas, about how his life was so very different from ours, and about how he came to change his political beliefs.  I'd love to sit and chat with this couple, to absorb a little of their culture and to learn how he treated his slaves.  I hope he was as close to being a good master as he could be, given that a master, by definition, would not fit the 21st century meaning of good.

The line of descent is:

Thomas Stansbury-Hannah Gorsuch
Rachel Stansbury-Alexis Lemmon
Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick
Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black
Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis Stanard
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants