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Return to Woodward Home Page Return to John and Sarah Bowater Beals Page Return to Joseph and Ann Armfield Thornbrough Page Return to Joseph and Wellmet Beeson Thornbrough Thomas and Sarah Ankram Beals Family
Thomas Beals was the son of John and Sarah Bowater Beals and grandson of John & Mary Clayton Beales of Chester County, Pennsylvania. There is a nice history of the ministerial travels of Thomas Beals on a Branson/Cook Web Site.
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Thomas Beals born 1719 Chester Co, Pa died 8/29/1801 Ross Co, Oh (?) buried Fairfield MM (?) |
Sarah Ankram born 1724 died 7/7/1813 Highland Co, Oh buried Fairfield MM |
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Married: recorded at Hopewell Monthly Meeting, Opeckan, Frederick County, Virginia, "9/12/1741 Thomas Beales, Prince George's Co, Md.; m Saran Ankram, same place."
(Hopewell's early records have been lost and this is reconstruction of records from other sources per Hinshaw)
Children: Mary Beals born 6/15/1742 (O.S.) born Maryland or Virginia (died infancy?) Mary & Sarah Beals born 8/30/1743 Maryland or Virginia Thomas Beals born 10/29/1745 Maryland or Virginia Patience Beals born 12/9/1747 Maryland or Virginia; married Benjamin Carr William Beals born 6/13/1750 North Carolina; married Priscilla Horton Daniel Beals born 2/15/1753 (N.S.) North Carolina; married Susanna Jackson Elizabeth Beals born 4/25/1755 North Carolina; married Samuel Bond Margaret Beals born 10/12/1757 North Carolina; married James Horton Hannah Beals born 12/13/1759 North Carolina; married Isaac Williams Rachel Beals born 3/9/1763 North Carolina; married William Thornbrough John Beals born 3/9/1763 North Carolina Jacob Beals born 10/28/1768 North Carolina (See About Dates for an explanation of old style (O.S.) and new style (N.S.) dates) |
History of Thomas and Sarah BealsSome of the information about Thomas Beals comes from a letter from Gersham Perdue to William Foster in 1871, published in " Early Settlement of Friends in N.C.: Traditions and Reminiscences II," The Southern Friend, p. 34-38.The move to North Carolina and VirginiaThomas Beals moved to North Carolina in the year 1743 according to Perdue, but this early date is not likely. Thomas & Sarah were living under the jurisdiction of Hopewell Monthly Meeting when they married in 1741. Their notice of intent was at Hopewell but their marriage certificate lists them as "Thomas Beales of the County of Prince George in Maryland, and Sarah Ankram of the same place, having declared intentions in Virginia and Maryland..." Their marriage certifcate is witnessed by Mary Matthews, Sarah Beales, Elizabeth Matthews, Hannah Ballenger, Susanna Moon, Mary Tannyhill, Oliver Matthews, Thomas Matthews, Francis Henley, Amos Jenny, Evan Thomas, John Wright ("Witnesses to North Carolina Quaker Marriages," by William Perry Johnson, The North Carolinian Vol 1, No. 1, p. 32.)In 5/1744 when Fairfax Monthly Meeting was set off from Hopewell in Fairfax County, Virginia, Thomas & Sarah were automatically transferred as members so were still living in Northern Virginia or Maryland at that time. Thomas & Sarah and their four oldest children were granted a certificate to Carver's Creek Monthly Meeting in Bladen County, North Carolina on 6/26/1749 from Fairfax Monthly Meeting so probably moved to North Carolina about that time. Hinshaw reports their children as born in North Carolina beginning with William. Cane Creek Monthly Meeting was set up 7/10/1751 covering a large area of central North Carolina. Thomas Beals, brother Bowater Beals and their mother Sarah Beals are all mentioned in the first few months meeting minutes and then were charter members of New Garden Monthly Meeting when it was set off in 1754. The families of Richard Williams, John Mills, John Beals, Thomas Hunt and Robert Sumner located at various times near Thomas and Sarah in North Carolina. All were brothers and brothers-in-law of Thomas. The last recorded certificate was John Beals from Hopewell Monthly Meeting in Virginia received at New Garden on 4/14/1758. The move to Surry Co, NCThomas and Sarah Beals next moved to Westfield, Surry County, North Carolina, where, according to Perdue, Thomas assisted in building up a large meeting. Thomas Beals was recorded as a Quaker minister on 6/29/1776 at New Garden Monthly Meeting and is styled "of Surry County" when his daughter Margaret married James Horton at New Garden on 1/17/1778. Relatives John Bowater Beals and William Beals are mentioned as charter members of Westfield Monthly Meeting but Thomas & Sarah are not mentioned then.Thomas and the IndiansDuring the time Thomas Beals lived at New Garden and/or Westfield he paid several extensive religious visits to the Indian nations. 9/28/1777 he was granted a certificate at New Garden to "visit, in gospel truth the Mingo & Delaware Indians. William Robinson to accompany him." On 3/28/1778 "Thomas and companion, William Robinson, returned from their visit to Indians & gave account that they were detained prisoners some weeks & Thomas had his certificate taken from him." Gersham Perdue tells of this incident but names his companion as William Baldwin. Since the Quaker records twice name Robinson, that is probably the correct name.Perdue tells of another journey in 1775 when Thomas Beals was accompanied by his nephew Bowater Sumner, by William Hiatt, and David Ballard and they were arrested by the British as being confederates of the hostile Indians. Thomas Beals held a religious meeting with the soldiers and was released and sent home. New Garden Monthly meeting records the granting of a certificate 3/25/1780 to Thomas Beals, William Hiatt, Christopher Hiatt & David Ballard to be near and labor with the Delaware Indians near the Ohio River; this may be the visit referred to by Perdue. Thomas had requested a certificate on 2/26/1780 to remove with his family to the Ohio River to be near the Delaware Indians, but the meeting had advised him to visit by himself before removing his family. A brief Return to VirginiaAccording to Perdue, in 1781 Thomas and Sarah Beals moved to Bluestone, Giles County, Virginia, where a meeting of twenty or thirty families was established. Their sufferings were very great for the necessaries of life and their son-in-law James Horton, husband of daughter Margaret, was taken prisoner by the Indians, taken to Ohio, and killed. The Bluestone meeting was not approved by the Quakers and a committee from Westfield was sent to see that they moved back to the jurisdiction of Westfield. This move is supported in New Garden Monthly Meeting records dated 10/26/1782: "Thomas Beal & friends had 'moved out to the back inhabitants.' A committee appointed to visit them reported 'they are in a very low situation, and it is most consistent for them to return back to where they moved from.'"Possible Work in TennesseePerdue reports that, in 1785 Thomas and Sarah moved to Lost Creek in Tennessee. "He was instrumental in setting up meetings at these places and gathered many to righteousness." Since Lost Creek Monthly Meeting was not set up until 1797 the date is suspect - perhaps Thomas had gone on ministerial visits to the area and was instrumental in setting up small meetings for worship in private homes at some earlier date. Nolichucky Meeting was in the area but no records survive including the date of establishment. There is nothing reported at Westfield Monthly Meeting to suggest an actual move to Lost Creek. Thomas Beals, Jr. did move to Lost Creek but not until 1803. Relatives John Bowater Beals and Jacob Beals are recorded at Newhope about 1793 (Newhope in Greene County also handled records for those living in the Lost Creek area), but again Thomas & Sarah are not mentioned. (Also see the Quaker Web Site for an interesting discussion of the identity of this Jacob Beals).William and Priscilla Horton BealsSon William Beals had married Priscilla Horton, daughter of Abraham Horton, and brother of James Horton who married William's sister Margaret, on 5/14/1777 at New Garden Monthly Meeting. On 11/24/1804 two certificates were received for Priscilla Beals at Lost Creek Monthly Meeting: One was for Priscilla and sons William and Jacob and the other was for Priscilla and daughters Hannah, Rachel, Priscilla and Lydia. Evidently William was deceased at that time. On 5/31/1806 Priscilla and daughters Rachel, Priscilla and Lydia received a certificate on to Miami Monthly Meeting in Ohio.Move To Ohio and More on the ChildrenPerdue reports that Thomas and Sarah moved to Grayson County, Virginia, in 1793. He continues that in 1799 Thomas and Sarah and sons John and Daniel moved to Ohio and settled first at Quaker Bottom and later at Adelphia in Ross County, Ohio.Thomas Beals supposedly died and is buried there near Richmond, Ross County, Ohio. In the fall of 1802 Sarah Antrim Beals and her two sons John and Daniel, and their families moved from Adelphia and settled at Lee's Creek in Highland County, Ohio. A meeting was opened and held at the house of John Beals and William Lupton.According to Quaker records, Miami Monthly Meeting in Warren County, Ohio, received a certificate for "John Beals & children, Nathan, Thomas, Ann & Daniel, also his aged mother, Sarah Beals, her grandaughter Tabitha Beals, and grandson Abel Thornbrough." This certificate was received 11/8/1804 from Mount Pleasant Monthly Meeting in Virginia, dated 11/26/1803. Perdue is very specific about Thomas Beals death on "29th 8th month, 1801, buried on the 31st near Richmond, Ross County, in a coffin of regular shape hewn out of a solid white walnut tree, by his faithful friend, Jesse Baldwin, assisted by others..." However the records of Fairfield Monthly Meeting in Highland County, Ohio, indicate that Thomas was buried at Fairfield. Jesse Baldwin was also a charter member of Fairfield Meeting, but he wrote a letter from Ross County, Ohio, in 1800 which lends credibility to the story above. It is quite possible that Thomas Beals did die at the time and place that Perdue specifies and that he was again on a ministerial visit, but it seems that Thomas's son John and his wife Sarah did not arrive in the area until 1804. Fairfield Monthly Meeting was not set up until 1807 but there were meetings for worship before that date and Sarah Beals, Patience Carr, and other relatives were charter members when the monthly meeting was set off from Miami Monthly Meeting. Now it is possible, as we see in the biography of Abraham Woodward, for a certificate to be provided long after a move was actually made. And it is possible that no certificate could be provided from Mt. Pleasant at an earlier date as there may have simply been no meeting to receive a certificate. There is a notation in the Fairfield Monthly Meeting Minutes on 7/6/1813 that Sarah Beals age 89 died and was buried at Fairfield. The notation for Thomas Beals reads "1801,8,29 Thomas d age 82 bur Fairfield." (Hinshaw, Vol V, page 221). Purdue mentions: Sarah Beals died at the age of 89 and was buried at Fairfield, near Leesburg. John Beals died in Hamilton County, Indiana, and Daniel Beals in Randolph County, Indiana, both aged men. Daniel and Susanna Jackson BealsSusanna, wife of Daniel Beals, and children Curtis, Jacob, Elizabeth Ann, Catron, Rachel and Susannah also arrived at Miami Monthly Meeting from Mt. Pleasant with a certificate dated 1804. It is interesting that four of the children married Thornbroughs who were grandchildren of Joseph and Ann Armfield Thornbrough. Son Jacob Beals married Mary Thornbrough, daughter of Edward and Phebe [Sumner] Thornbrough on 9/16/1807 at Miami MM. Elizabeth Beals married John W. Thornbrough, son of Joseph and Rachel Brown Thornbrough, 29 June 1808, at Fairfield Monthly Meeting, Highland Co, Ohio. Susan Beals married John Thornbrough, son of Isaac and Rebecca Thornbrough, 21 Sept 1815 at Newbury MM, Clinton Co, Ohio. Rachel Beals married Joseph Thornbrough, son of Edward and Phebe Sumner Thornbrough on 12 Dec 1811 at Lower East Fork, Highland County, Ohio.One might think that Daniel was deceased with only Susanna receiving a certificate with all the children, both male and female, but Purdue mentions Daniel living to a ripe old age. So this is something that needs further exploration. Rachel Beals ThornbroughRachel Beals married William Thornbrough, son of Joseph and Wellmet Thornbrough, early in 1789 in Guilford County, North Carolina. They had a single child Abel Thornbrough, b 16 Nov 1789. Both William and Rachel died young and Abel was apparently cared for by Sarah Ankram and went with her to Miami MM in Warren County, Ohio in 1804. He too lived to a ripe old age dieing in 1880 in Highland County, Ohio. He had a wife Rhoda and children Lydia, Mary Ann, Rachel, Susannah, William and John Thomas Thornbrough.Updates: 3/6/2007 A kind reader pointed out an error and we have corrected Joseph Thornbrough, husband of Rachel Beals, to son of Edward and Phebe Sumner Thornbrough. |