Thomas Holme (1624 - 1695)

Born 3 Nov 1624 in Waterhead, Lancashire, England

Husband of Sarah (Croft) Holme — married 5 Aug 1649 in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England

Descendants

Died May 1695 at age 70 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, British America

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Biography

Thomas was a Friend (Quaker)

Thomas Holme was born in Lancashire, England on November 3, 1624 to George & Alice Holme^{[1][2] [3]}. He married Sarah Croft in 1649^[1][2], and soon enlisted in the army. He served under Oliver Cromwell, came to Ireland in September 1649^[2] and attained the rank of captain in Lord Henry Cromwell's Regiment of Horse.^[4][1][5] Upon his retirement he was granted more than 4,000 statute acres in Wexford, Ireland^[5][1] as part of the Cromwellian settlement of Ireland although after the Restoration he had to give up some part of this as 'savings' to Catholics and Royalists who had previously lost their lands^[5]. Even so, by 1670 he was recorded as owning 3,160 plantation acres (=5,120 statute acres) in 25 different townlands in the Baronies of Shelborne, Shelmalee and Forth, all in the county of Wexford.^[6][7][8].

In 1655, Thomas Holme joined the Quakers. That year, he and a group of other Quakers meeting in a Friend's house for worship were

haled and dragged and so forcefully turned out out of the town by order of Edward Withers, mayor, and not long after the said Thomas Holme was put out of his commission of the peace, for owning the people called Quakers and their principles of Truth^[9].

In 1657, Thomas Holme was one of a group of Quakers thrown out of a Friend's house in Cashel, Tipperary by a group of soldiers and left stranded outside the town gates at night time where they were in danger from 'tories'^[10]. In 1660, Thomas Holme was one of a group of seventeen men and six women taken by soldiers from a Quaker meeting and kept prisoners for several days^[11]. In 1673, a Captain Thornhill, a creditor of his, exploited the fact that, as a Quaker, he would not take an oath to deprive him of £200 by taking the dispute to the court of Chancery^[12].

Thomas Holme was the joint author with Abraham Fuller (1622-1694) of a book on the sufferings of Irish Quakers^[13].

In 1659, he and 52 others published an address to Parliament reciting "the Cruel and Unjust Sufferings of the People of God in the Nation of Ireland called Quakers"^[14][15].

Thomas Holme was one of the first Irish Quakers to take an active interest in William Penn's proposed colony of Pennsylvania; he was a First Purchaser, having acquired a right to 5,000 acres and also became a member of the Free Society of Traders, subscribing for £50 of stock^[14].

In the fall of 1681, shortly after receiving his commission from King Charles II, William Penn appointed three Commissioners, William Crispin, John Bezar, and Nathaniel Allen, to come to America, establish a colony, and carry out Penn's "plans and specifications", including the founding of the city which was to be named Philadelphia ^[16]. Captain Crispin died en route.

So, 'on April 18, 1682, Penn appointed him [Thomas Holme] Surveyor General of the Province^[14]. The commission reads

I, the said William Penn, reposing special confidence in the integrity and ability of my loving friend Captain Thomas Holme, of the City of Waterford, in the Kingdom of Ireland, do by these presents elect, empower and establish him, the said Thomas Holme, in the office, trust and employment of surveyor-general of the said province of Pennsylvania, for and during his natural life, he behaving himself honestly in the said office.

Thomas embarked on the Amity with his children Michael, Tryall, Eleanor and Esther and Silas Crispin, the son of the recently deceased Captain Crispin, arriving in Pennsylvania in August 1682. His Certificate of Removal from the meeting in Waterford City, Ireland dated 11,p 29. 1681 was read in the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and the family was accepted into fellowship.

In his capacity as Surveyor General of Pennsylvania Thomas laid out the original plan for the city of Philadelphia. He produced the first detailed map of Pennsylvania entitled "A Mapp of Ye Improved Part of Pensilvania in America, Divided Into Countyes, Townships and Lotts..." which was published in 1687^[17].

In November 1682, Thomas received a land grant of 1646 acres on either side of Dublin (Pennypack) Creek which would become Wellspring Plantation. In 1686 he purchased 500 acres from Sam Clarridge giving him a total of 2146 acres. The dividing line down the middle of the Wellspring grant was to be a great Street, becoming Susquehanna Street and was intended to connect the Delaware and Susquehanna River (a distance of some 125 miles). However the land was untilmately found to be unsatisfactory for the great Town.^[17].

Thomas' daughter Esther Holmes married Silas Crispin shortly after their arrival in 1682. When Thomas died in May 1695 at the age of 71, Silas was named executor of his will.^[17] Thomas was buried in Dublin Township, now the Holmesburg section of the city of Philadelphia. In 1863 a six foot marble obelisk was erected in his honor in Pennypack Park near where his home is believed to have been located.^[1]

Research Notes

The Thomas Holme of this profile should not be confused with Thomas Holme (c.1625-1666) who was one of the first Quaker missionaries and did much to establish Quakerism in South Wales.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Thomas Holme (1624-1695) wikipedia.org
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Family Lists, image, FindMyPast (https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record/browse?id=ire%2fquaker%2fmmx1m-1%2f0019 : accessed 27 July 2022), Family list of Thomas Holme; citing Waterford MM Births and burials 1649-1862, Religious Society Of Friends In Ireland Archives.
3. ↑ England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NPDP-L2L
4. ↑ Prendergast, J. P., The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland, PM Haverty, New York, 1868, table p131 (https://archive.org/details/cromwellian00prenrich/page/130/mode/1up?view=theater : Accessed 22April 2024)
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Abstracts of Grants of Land and other Hereditaments under the Acts of Settlement and Explanation AD 1666-1684' which forms section I of the Appendix to the Fifteenth Annual Report of the Commissioners for Public Records in Ireland, HMSO, 1825 pp 110, 293 (https://archive.org/details/op1244157-1001/page/110/mode/2up?view=theater&q=Holme : accessed 27 July 2022)
6. ↑ GIS Landowner by name for landowner Thomas Holmes [sic] (http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/landowners.php#l5=Holmes,+Thomas&mc=52.244041,-6.460176&z=11 : accessed 27 July 2022)
7. ↑ Article 'Irish measure' wikipedia contributors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_measure : accessed 27 July 2022)
8. ↑ Example entry in the Books of Survey and distribution for Whitchurch Parish, Shelborne Barony, County Wexford, from Ireland's Virtual Record Treasury ref NAI QRO 1/1/3/12/2/1 (https://www.virtualtreasury.ie/item?isadgReferenceCode=NAI%20QRO%201%2F1%2F3%2F12%2F2%2F1 : accessed 27 July 2022)
9. ↑ "Ireland, Society of Friends (Quaker) Yearly Meeting Sufferings," image, FindMyPast (https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FYMG-1%2F0010&parentid=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FCONG%2F1182876 : accessed 27 July 2022), sufferings of Thomas Holme county of Wexford for the year of 1655, citing YM Sufferings 1694-1705, Religious Society Of Friends In Ireland Archives ref YM G1.
10. ↑ "Ireland, Society of Friends (Quaker) Yearly Meeting Sufferings," image, FindMyPast (https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FYMG-1%2F0009&parentid=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FCONG%2F1182842 : accessed 27 July 2022), sufferings of Thomas Holme county of Tipperary for the year of 1657, citing YM Sufferings c. 1665-1693, Religious Society Of Friends In Ireland Archives ref YM G1.
11. ↑ "Ireland, Society of Friends (Quaker) Yearly Meeting Sufferings," image, FindMyPast (https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FMM11G-1%2F0009&parentid=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FCONG%2F350661 : accessed 27 July 2022), sufferings of Thomas Holme county of Wexford for the year of 1660, citing YM Sufferings 1665-1693, Religious Society Of Friends In Ireland Archives ref YM G1.
12. ↑ Wight, T and Rutty, J. A history of the rise and progress of the people called Quakers in Ireland, William Phillips, London, 1800, p 125 (https://archive.org/details/historyofrisepro00wigh/page/124/mode/2up?q=Holme&view=theater : accessed 27 July 2022)
13. ↑ Thomas Holme and Abraham Fuller, A Brief Relation of some part of the Sufferings of the True-Christians, The People of God (in scorn caller Quakers) in Ireland for these last Eleven Years, viz., from 1660 until 1671, (Dublin, 1672)(https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A44231.0001.001/1:6?rgn=div1;view=toc : accessed 27 July 2022) also a second edition A Compendious View of some extraordinary Sufferings of the people call'd Quakers both in person and substance in the Kingdom of Ireland, from the year 1655 to the end of the reign of King George the First, Fuller Abraham and Holms Thomas, printed Samuel Fuller, Dublin, 1731. (https://play.google.com/store/books/details/A_Compendious_View_of_some_extraordinary_Suffering?id=OhZgAAAAcAAJ&gl=US: accessed 27 July 2022)
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1 14.2} Some prominent Irish Friends : Thomas Holme in: Myers, Albert Cook. Immigration of the Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania, 1682-1750 : with their early history in Ireland. Swarthmore, Pa, 1902. p.247 - 256 (https://archive.org/details/immigrationofiri00myer/page/246/mode/2up?q=Holme&view=theater : retrieved 27 Jul 2022)
15. ↑ 'Captain Thomas Holme, Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania and Provincial Councillor' Author(s): Oliver Hough Source: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography , 1895, Vol. 19, No. 4 (1895), pp. 413-427 Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press (Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20085658 : accessed 27 July 2022)
16. ↑ Crispin, Rev. William Frost. A Biographical and Historical Sketch of Captain William Crispin of the British Navy …, The Commercial Printing Co, Akron Ohio (1901)archives.org
17. ↑ ^{17.0 17.1 17.2} Alive with History, The Evolution of Holmesburg Holmesburg Civic Association

See also:

• Hough, Oliver. "Captain Thomas Holme, Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania and Provincial Councillor", The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol 19, no 4 (1895) pp. 413-427. Historical Society of Pennsylvania (http://www.jstor.org/stable/20085658)
• Wikidata: Item Q7790767, en:Wikipedia

Acknowledgments

• Thank you to Lolo X for creating WikiTree profile Holme-55 through the import of Privatized March 2013 Wagner - Follmer Families_2013-03-01.ged on Mar 1, 2013