Thomas Curtis (bef. 1625 - 1712)

Husband of Ann (Yeamans) Curtis — married 28 Jan 1651 in Bristol, England

Died 14 Nov 1712 after age 87 in Reading, Berkshire, England

Biography

Thomas was a Friend (Quaker)

Thomas was the son of Arthur Curtis. He was probably born at Reading, Berkshire.^[1]

He was a captain in the New Model Army during the English Civil War, suggesting that he was born before 1625.^[1]

On 28 January 1651 Thomas married Ann Yeomans at All Saints, Bristol.^[2] She was the daughter of Robert Yeomans who was executed in 1643 for his part in a plot to admit royalist forces into Bristol.^[1] Their daughter Esther married Anthony Sharp on 27 March 1663.^[1]

Thomas was a woollen draper of Reading, Berkshire.^[1] In 1652 he was made a sub-commissioner for sequestrations in Berkshire.^[1]

In 1654 he became a Quaker.^[1] The following year George Fox stayed with him at Reading.^[1][3] Thomas was quickly active in the Quaker movement. In 1656 he and his wife were imprisoned for interrupting a church service in Reading.^[1] That same year he embarked on a missionary tour of south-west England, where he endured further periods of imprisonment in 1657, at Bridport, Dorset and Exeter, Devon.^[1]

In July 1659 he was made a militia commissioner for Berkshire.^[1] A few weeks later George Fox again stayed at his Reading home, recovering from a period of "great travail in [his] spirit".^[4][5]

Further periods in prison followed in the 1660s: Thomas was finally released in 1672.^[1]

In the Wilkinson-Storey controversy which erupted among the Quakers in the later 1670s, Thomas and Ann took the part of John Wilkinson and John Story, and a Curtis Monthly meeting was established in Reading (lasting until 1716).^[6] In 1693 Thomas made a failed attempt at reconciliation with the main Quaker movement.^[1]

Thomas's wife Ann died in 1703.^[7] He remarried.^[1]

Thomas died at Reading, Berkshire on 14 November 1712.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for 'Curtis, Thomas', print and online 2004, available online via some libraries
2. ↑ England Marriages, 1538–1973, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NF5H-ZN1
3. ↑ William C Braithwaite. The Beginnings of Quakerism, 2nd edition, William Sessions, 1981, p. 201
4. ↑ William C Braithwaite, The Beginnings of Quakerism, p. 355
5. ↑ Isabel Ross. Margaret Fell, Mother of Quakerism, 3rd edition, William Sessions, 1996, p. 129
6. ↑ William C Braithwaite. The Second period of Quakerism, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press 1955, subsequently distributed by William Sessions, pp. 470ff
7. ↑ England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Burials 1578-1841, BERKSHIRE AND OXFORDSHIRE: Monthly Meeting of Reading and Warborough: Reading, RG6/1255, FindMyPast

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for 'Curtis, Thomas', print and online 2004, available online via some libraries