The land transactions of John Thomas are instructive and interesting in themselves. First, he and his brother Michael had a patent for 156 acres in the midst of patents to Blankenbakers, Scheible, and Fleshman. At the time this patent was issued in 1726, John Thomas was fourteen years of age and Michael was perhaps about seven years old. Probably, had the authorities known the ages of John and Michael, there would have been objections raised. More exactly, they would have demanded guardians for the boys. This land, in the newly formed Spotsylvania County was free so no payment for it is recorded.
Two years later, John Thomas took another 400 acres. He was sixteen years old at this time. This aggressive action was continued in another 400-acre tract in 1735. This is the patent in which he paid for the land by the three head rights of Tanners, plus 25 shillings. When he was less than 23 years old, he was the owner of almost a thousand acres of land.
In 1742, John Thomas released his rights in the original tract of 156 acres to his brother Michael. When he sold, John’s wife was Mary.
In 1745, John Thomas bought 470 acres of land from John Paul Vogt (Vaught) and Mary Catherine, his wife.
In 1747, John Thomas transferred 200 plus acres to Margaret Aylor, his sister.
In 1760, John Thomas gave 109 acres to Jacob Holtzclaw (Jr.) who had married John’s daughter, Susannah. This same year John also gave 90 acres to Jacob Blankenbaker who had married Mary Barbara, another of John’s daughters. In 1762, John gave Joseph Holtzclaw 96 acres. Joseph has married Mary, another daughter of John’s. At about this same time there was a sale of land to John Railsback but this will be deferred until the next Note.
In 1762, John Thomas and his wife, Sarah, sold a parcel of land (100 acres) to Michael Smith. This tract came from the Vaught tract. Michael Smith was John’s brother-in-law who married Anna Magdalena Thomas.
In 1771, John Thomas and Sarah, his wife, sold 68 acres to Zachary Smith, a son of John’s sister Anna Magdalena. Also, this same year, John and Sarah Thomas sold 124 acres on Deep Run to Michael Smith.
(03 Apr 06)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.