Thomas Painter, son of Quaker couple Hannah (née Braddock) and John Painter, senior, was born about 1742 (or shortly afterwards) in Burlington County, Province of New Jersey. By the early 1760s, the Painter family became pioneers of the Shenandoah Valley, settling in Frederick County, Colony of Virginia. At John Painter's request, "his three children who are young"—Thomas, Isaac, and Hannah—were also received into membership of the Hopewell Monthly Meeting (MM), near Winchester, Frederick County, in 1763.

John Painter passed away in 1771, and bequeathed to his "well beloved son Thomas Painter" a 175-acre tract in Frederick County. Thomas Painter on 4 April 1774 was received into Hopewell MM membership, and disowned on 4 November 1776.

Thomas Painter reportedly married Sarah Williams, also from Burlington County. There is no civil or Quaker record of the marriage; the date and place are unknown. The couple are said to have been the parents of three sons and seven daughters. The three sons are known: the eldest, John, was born in 1781. The daughters are unidentified.

From 1782 to 1787, Thomas Painter was a taxpayer in Berkeley County, then in Virginia, and his son Joel was born 1786 in Harper's Ferry, then in Berkeley County. The family afterwards moved to North Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and enumerated there in 1790 and 1800. Son Isaac was born there in the early 1790s. Thomas Painter is reported to have purchased a farm in 1796 in North Huntingdon, later worked by his son John, and his grandson Thomas W.

Thomas Painter was living at least as late as 1800. That year, the Thomas Painter household comprised 15 persons, included a couple aged 45 and over. His date of death and place of burial are unknown. If he remained in Westmoreland County, he may have been buried in the Old Quaker cemetery in that county's Sewickley Township.

Notes

Some genealogies estimate Thomas Painter's birth year to be 1740, but it could be no earlier than 1742. John Painter's minor children—Thomas, Isaac, and Hannah—on 3 Jan 1763 were granted membership by the Hopewell MM in Frederick Co., Virginia. (Minutes of the Hopewell Monthly Meeting from 3-26-1759 to 12-2-1776 (manuscript), p. 98.)

John Painter, senior, in his 1771 will gave "my well beloved son Thomas Painter one certain tract of land" in Frederick County comprising 175 acres. Further: "It is my will that all the remainder of my movable estate be equally divided amongst my said children as I allow, Sarah Humber, John Painter, Robert Painter, Jane Branson, Thomas Painter, Isaac Painter, and Hannah Painter to them their heirs and assigns forever." (Frederick County, Virginia, Will Book, vol. 4, p. 65.)

Hopewell MM on 4 April 1774 recorded: "Thomas Painter having been under notice of friends for some Considerable time & now requests to be joined in Membership which after Deliberate Consideration the Meeting Grants his Request & Receives him into Membership." (Minutes of the Hopewell Monthly Meeting from 3-26-1759 to 12-2-1776 (manuscript), p. 308.)

"Whereas Thomas Painter A member of our Society [...] hath been Guilty of Adultery by his Own Confession [...] hereby disowning him to be any Longer A member or Our Society untill by Repentance he become capable to make satisfaction for his misconduct [...] Hopewell Monthly Meeting held the 4th of the 11th Mo 1776." (Minutes of the Hopewell Monthly Meeting from 3-26-1759 to 12-2-1776 (manuscript), pp. 364-65.)

• Under Common Law, adultery was extramarital sex with a married or betrothed woman. The man's marital status was not relevant.

1790 U.S. Census, North Huntingdon Twp., Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania; p. 61 (written).

[2.] Thos Penter.

• Ten persons including one adult male.

• Wm Parks in North Huntingdon Twp., p. 52. William Parks was the father of Harriet Parks, who would later marry Thomas Painter's son John.

1800 U.S. Census, North Huntingdon Twp., Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania; p. 1079 (written).

[6.] Painter Thomas.

[7.] Parks Wm.

• The Thomas Painter household of 15 persons included a male and a female aged 45 or older.

"His father, John Painter, was born in 1781 and was a Quaker in religious belief as was his father [Thomas Painter] before him." (Bio. of Thomas W. Painter in: Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: John M. Gresham & Co., 1890), p. 403.)

"Thomas Painter, Mrs. [Sarah] Byer's grandfather, had three sons and seven daughters. Of these, Joel [Painter], her father, was born in 1787, and moved to Pennsylvania from Harper's Ferry, Va., when he was quite small [...] Mrs. Byers is descended from an old family of Quakers who lived in Virginia many years." (Bio. of John W. Byers in: R. C. Brown, History of Madison County, Ohio (Chicago: W. H. Beers & Co., 1883), p. 859.)

• Harpers Ferry was in Virginia prior to the creation of West Virginia in 1863.

Reviewed 22 April 2024.