Thomas Hewitt (b. circa 1780 - d. 1857)
MSA SC 5496-051232
Property owner, Queen Anne's County, Maryland
Biography:
Thomas Hewitt was born around 1780 to John and Rebekah Hewitt. He had at least one sibling, his younger brother John. When John Hewitt died in 1800, he willed Thomas "my land and improvements where on I now live."1 The land included 700 acres of the tracts Wrights Square and Toms Fancy.2
Hewitt served as one of delegates for the 1835 convention, which nominated William Grason to the State Senate.3 He married Elizabeth Cox (b. circa 1800) on May 28, 1844.4 Although Hewitt had at least two sons, Hemsley and Jesse T., both had died by 1857.5
In 1820, the U.S. Census Bureau recorded Thomas Hewitt as owning five slaves. One free black man also lived in Hewitt's household. His name is unknown, since the 1820 census only named heads of households, and simply marked the number of white, free black, and enslaved people in each age group.6 In 1831, his slaves John Reasons and Nancy Reasons escaped, along with the slave William from Lewis Williamson's farm. In the runaway advertisement, Hewitt described his farm as standing near Sudler's Cross Roads (Sudlersville).7 The 1840 census did not list any slaves in Hewitt's household.8 However, he sold a slave woman named India, age forty, to Elias Cox in 1847.9 The 1850 slave schedules showed Hewitt as owning six slaves.10
Thomas Hewitt made his will on December 2, 1857, and had died by December
8th.11 The inventory of
his estate listed "one negro man Sewall."12
1. QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY, REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills, Original), [MSA C1496-24], John Hewitt, April 19, 1800.
2. QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY COURT, (Land Records), 1807-1811, Liber STW 9, Folio 132, [MSA CE 143-27], Thomas Hewitt to John May, November 30, 1807. Deed.
3. Frederic Emory, Queen Anne's County, Maryland: Its Early History and Development (Baltimore, MD: The Maryland Historical Society, 1950) 458-159.
4. QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY,
CIRCUIT COURT, (Marriage Licenses), [MSA T1702-1], Thomas Hewitt and Elizabeth
Cox, May 28, 1844.
U.S. Census
Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Thomas Hewitt, 1850, Queen Anne's County,
District 1, Page 54, Line 14 [MSA SM61-144, M 1500-1].
5. Ibid.
QUEEN ANNE'S
COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), Liber STH 1, Folio 60, [MSA CM869-14,
Reel CR 56-1], Thomas Hewitt, December 8, 1857.
6. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Thomas Hewitt, 1820, Queen Anne's County, Districts 1 and 2, Page 15, Line 15 [MSA SM61-75, M 2067-1].
7. "100 Dol. Reward," Centreville Times and Public Advertiser 22 October 1831: 2.
8. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Thomas Hewitt, 1840, Queen Anne's County, Districts 1 and 2, Page 15, 3rd line from bottom [M 4723-2, MSA SM61-115].
9. QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY COURT, (Land Records), 1846-1850, Liber JT 5, Folio 354, [MSA CE 143-41], Thomas Hewitt and Elizabeth Hewitt to Elias Cox, December 15, 1847. Bill of Sale.
10. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD), Slaves for Thomas Hewitt, Slaves, 1850, Queen Anne's County, District 1, Page 5, Line 18 [MSA SM61-170, M 1506-1].
11. QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), Liber STH 1, Folio 60, [MSA CM869-14, Reel CR 56-1], Thomas Hewitt, December 8, 1857.
12. QUEEN ANNE'S
COUNTY, REGISTER OF WILLS, (Inventories), Liber STH 2, Folio 41, Film Reel:
CR 879-1, [MSA CM860-34], Estate of Thomas Hewitt.
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