Thomas Meriwether
© The Meriwether Society, Inc.

Thomas Meriwether was born about 1713, the first child of David Meriwether and Anne Holmes. He was a large landowner, obtaining most of his holdings from the bequests of his grandfather, Nicholas Meriwether II. He was prominent in local politics, being one of the Justices of Louisa County, and numbered among his friends Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson; Col. Robert Lewis who married his aunt Jane Meriwether (and, later, Thomas’s widow); and Dr. Thomas Walker, who married his cousin Nicholas Meriwether’s widow, Mildred (Thornton) Meriwether and who was also the sister of his wife Elizabeth Thornton.

Thomas married Elizabeth Thornton, daughter of Col. Francis Thornton and Mary Taliaferro. They had 11 known children: Nicholas, Francis, David, Mary Elizabeth, Sarah, Anne, Lucy, Mildred, Thomas and Jane.

Through his daughter Lucy, Thomas was the grandfather of Capt. Meriwether Lewis, co-leader of the Corp of Discovery.

Birth
The birth date of about 1713 is based on an analysis of land deeds indicating when Thomas became active as an adult. Most genealogies have abt 1714/1715.

Death
Thomas signed his will in 1754, the day and month being illegible. The will was recorded on 25 June 1757. Thomas and Elizabeth had two children after 1754, Thomas Jr. who died about a day old and Jane, born April 1757. Since Thomas does not seem to have written an addendum to his will to cover Jane, it is probable he died well before her birth, so late 1756 or early 1757.

Burial
One source claims he is buried at the Jordan Family Cemetery near Monticello. It seems probable he was buried in the Meriwether Burial Ground where his father and grandfather were buried.

Will of Thomas Merewether 60

In the name of God Amen—I, Thomas Merewether of the County of Louisa and parish of Fredericksville in the Colony being in good health and of Sound mind and memory do make this Last Will and Testament in man- ner and form following.

Item: I give my beloved wife Elizabeth the use of one Sixth part of slaves and their Increase during her life and I do hereby give her power and authority either by and executed in her Lifetime or by Will to give and otherwise to dispose of the said Sixth part of my said Negroes and their increase to such of my Children or Grand Children as she shall desire.

Item: I give unto my wife my Household Furniture as a Satisfaction or in Lieu of her Right of Dower in such Lands as I have sold and to which she has never Relinquished her Right of Dower. Item: I bequeath to my six daughters Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, Ann, Lucy, and Mildred and to each of them and their Heirs forever a Negro girl about the same age with my said Daughters and my desire is that the said Negro Girls be brought up in their Home that they may be learnt all manner of Home work for the bene- fit of my said Daughters and that these Negro Girls shall not be numbered with the Rest of my Negroes in any Division of the whole but that each of my said Daughters shall have a Negroe (that is) the Negro Girl before mentioned more than shall have.

Item: I give and bequeath to my three sons Nicholas, Francis, and David Meriwether and my six Daughters before mentioned and their heirs forever all the remaining part of my Negroes and their Increase to be equally di- vided amongst them and my will and desire is that if any or either of my said Children shall die before they are to the age of twenty One years or marry, such Child or Children's [part?] or share of my Negroes shall be equally Divided amongst all the Brothers and Sisters of such Child or Children then surviving.

Item: It is my wish and desire that if my wife shall marry before [any and?] all of my Children shall arrive at the Age of Twenty One Years shall Marry then my Executors hereinafter named shall immediately—shall take such Child or Childrens part of my Estate as shall be under age or unmar- ried into their hands & possession and make (?) of it in the same manner as is hereafter Directed, for my wife of the same

Item: It is my will and desire that each of my Children shall Receive their part or share of my Estate as soon as they arrive to the age of twenty one Years or marry and that a Division of my Negroes shall be made amongst them in the following manner (Viz) after each of my Children Receives their part of my Negroes the Remaining part thereof shall be kept undivided till the next Child is become Capable of giving its part or share as aforesaid and so on till they have all Received their parts. My Reason for directing a Division in this manner thereof as if there should be any Loss or increase then the Negroes that Remain after any of my Children have received their Share then my Children which are still to receive after each Division may bear also equally and Receive an equal advantage of the Increase of any [distribution?].

Item: I give and bequeath my wife Elizabeth one half of my stock of [meat?] Cattle, Hogs and Sheep as a Satisfaction for or in Lieu of her Dower right my Rockfish Land and it is my Will & desire that the Remain- ing share of my Stock shall be Equally Divided among my Nine Children before mentioned in the same manner and at the Same time that I have directed my Negroes to be Divided.

Item: I give and devise to my Sons Nicholas Meriwether and his Heirs forever His choice of the Three Tracts or parcels of Land which I purchased Lately of Capt. Charles Lynch which Land by or in the county of Albermarle (sic) on the South Fork of James River.

Item: I give and devise to my son Francis Meriwether and his Heirs forever all the Land that I now hold & am Seised of lying on Rockfish River or any of the Branches thereof. I also give and devise to my son Francis & his heirs forever his Choice of the two Tracts or parcels of Land Remaining after my Son Nicholas's Choice of the said Land which I purchased of the said Lynch and is before Described.

Item: I give & devise to my son David Meriwether and his heirs forever all the land that I hold and am Seised of on Soteare creek in Albermarle (sic) County and also the remaining part of the said three Tracts of Land Purchased of the said Lynch and is before Mentioned & described.

Item: It is my Will & desire that if either of my Sons shall die before he comes of age or marrys that his part of the Lands before devised Shall go to the Eldest of my Sons then Surviving and his heirs forever in his paying his other Brother the sum of fifty pounds Sterling money of Great Britain & to each of his Sisters twenty pounds of like money which sums of moneys paid to each two years at farthest after they come of age or marry early.

Item: It is my Will and desire that my Executors hereinafter named shall have the Management, Education and Guardianship of my Sons and I give my said Executors full power and authority to make such Good and Sufficient Deeds to Convey any lands by me sold and named and also to Execute & Compleat any other Contract or Contracts made or entered into by me with any Person whatsoever.

Item: It is my Will and desire that my wife as long as she remains a widow shall have my whole Estate in her hands and Possession till each and all of my Children shall become Capable as aforesaid to take their share without her being accountable for the Profits thereof on Condition that she pay my debts, support and Provide necessarise for them and Cloathe the Negroes pay their Levies find them working Tools and the Quitrents of the Land and furnish my Executors with money necessary to Support and main- tain my sons at School or in any other Station that my Executors shall think fit to place them. I also desire that my outstanding Debts may be applied towards Discharge of the Debts due from me and if anything after- wards Remains then it shall be Cast into the Profits of my Estate and be applied to these uses.

Item: It is my will and desire that my Executors shall sell the Land I have bargained for sometime ago with Mr. James Brown in Case they find that a greater Sum can be got on (?) the same than the said James Brown has paid me which is about Two hundred pounds and the Balance shall be laid out in Negroes to be divided with my other Negroes and in the same manner as before directed amongst all my Children. My Executors may sell the Land at a Private Sale or at public auction as they shall find will be most advantagious. Whereas by an order of Council Granted to Doctor Thomas Walker and others with myself I have a Right to some Lands on the Waters of the River Mississippi, I therefore Will and devise that my Executors may sell and dispose of the same if they should think it more Conducive to my Childrens Interest to do so or I leave it to their Discretion to let the same remain until my Children or any of them shall become Capable of Choosing whether they will keep their proportionable part of this as Land or whether it shall be sold and the money arising from the sale of such Land if sold shall be Equally Divided amongst all my Children.

Then I do Constitute & appoint my Good Friends Col. Joshua Fry & Col. Peter Jefferson of Albermarle (sic) County, Doct. Thomas Walker of Louisa County and Col. John Thornton of Spotsylvania County Executors of this my Last Will & Testament hereby Revoking and making void all other Wills by me heretofore made & do publish & declare this only to be my Last Will & Sealed with my Seal Dated this Day of in the Year of our Lord One thousand Seven hundred & Fifty Four.

[Signed] Thomas Merewether [Seal]

Signed, Sealed & Published
In the presence of John Davis, Robert Martin, James Maury, Tho. Merewether.

At a Court held for Louisa County on the 25th Day of June 1757 This Will was this Day proved in open Court by the oaths of John Davis, Robert Martin, James Maury & Thomas Merewether. Witness thereto & by the Court admitted to Record & is recorded.
Teste: James Littlepage, CI.

Will of Thomas Meriwether
Will dated: __ ___ 1754
Witnesses: John Davis, Robert Martin, James Maury, Tho. Merewether.
Executors: Joshua Fry, Peter Jefferson (father of President Thomas Jefferson), Dr. Thomas Walker and John Thornton.
Will recorded: 25 June 1757, Louisa County, Virginia

Note that Thomas consistently used the spelling “Merewether” in his will.

Names and relationship of those mentioned in the will:

Merewether, Elizabeth; wife.
Merewether, Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, Ann, Lucy, Mildred; daughters.
Merewether, Nicholas, Francis, David; sons.

Brown, James; purchased land from Thomas

Not mentioned: son Thomas and daughter Jane, both born after Will was signed.

Full transcript found in The Meriwethers and Their Connections by Nelson Heath Meriwether, 1964, pp. 73-76.

^NOTE **GRG p73 states he was son of William, David’s brother.

^DEATH MBM notes state he died before his daughter Jane’s birth.

^DEATH: Weidler has: 25 Jun 1756 in Fredricksville, Louisa Co,VA. That would mean Jane was probably not his daughter. 61

Source: Colonial Families of the United States of America Volume 5, page 394, ISSUE

Thomas Meriwether b.1714; d.1756.

Thomas Meriwether
The Meriwethers and Their Connections 62

Thomas Meriwether, b. 1714/15 (fourth generation) was a large landowner and prominent in local politics in Virginia, being one of the Justices of Louisa County, and he numbered among his friends Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson; Col. Robert Lewis who married Jane Meriwether; and Dr. Thomas Walker, who married his uncle’s (sic) widow: Mildred (Thornton) Meriwether, and who was also the sister of his wife Elizabeth Thornton. His holdings in Virginia were due almost entirely to the bequest of his grandfather Nicholas Meriwether II.

——
The Thomas Meriwether operation was such a one as has been described. As his family increased and grew to maturity the sons were trained for managerial duties at home, as were their sisters, to assume their duties in the management of a home. Because of Thomas’s large holding he was able to provide all of his sons with great plantations when they married, which was usually at an early age. Thomas also gave several of his daughters plantations at the time of their marriages. He had about 9,000 acres in his several estates. By the time of his death in 1756 this holding had dwindled to 3,000 acres through his gifts of land to his children.

Major Thomas Meriwether
Virginia Encyclopedia Britanica 12,31

Major Thomas Meriwether, eldest son of Colonel David and Anne (Holmes) Meriwether, was born in 1714, died in 1757. His will was recorded in Louisa county, Virginia, June 28, 1757. He married Elizabeth Thornton, of Fredericksburg, Virginia. They were the parents of four sons and seven daughters, the eighth child, Lucy, married Colonel William Lewis and was the mother of Meriwether Lewis, the Rocky Mountain explorer.

In 1745 the Albemarle County Justices “ordered that a road be cleared from the Place Martin Kings Road came into the Three Notched Road by Ellis Hues to the county line towards Louisa Court House. All male tithables of Capt. Thomas Meriwether, Jno Edmunds, & Samuel Crawley be added to Jno Anthony’s Gange &c.”

Albemarle County Court Orders, 1744/45-1748
Joanne Lovelace Nance
Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, Volume 26, Number 2, May 1988.

Thomas Meriwether 63

Thomas Meriwether, the grandson of Nicholas the Welshman, and son of William, was a man of excellent character and great wealth; he married Elizabeth Thornton, who belonged to one of the most respectable untitled families of England. They had a numerous family.

Thomas Meriwether's rank in society may be estimated by his intimate friends, the executors of his will. They were Joshua Fry, Peter Jefferson (father of ex-President Jefferson), Dr. Thomas Walker and John Thornton.

Colonel Fry was appointed to the command of the Virginia troops raised to act against the French and Indians in the Seven Years' War, usually known in Virginia as Braddock's War. Colonel Fry also named the Cumberland mountains and river of Tennessee, in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, known in history as the “Butcher,” from his cruelty in the wars with the "House of Stuart." Upon the death of Colonel Fry George Washington succeeded to the command.

Dr. Walker was the grandfather of Mrs. William C. Rives, the wife of the present Minister (American) to France.

Colonel Thornton was the brother of his wife.

Thomas Meriwether had ten children.

Elizabeth (Thornton) Meriwether Lewis
© The Meriwether Society, Inc.

Elizabeth was born about 1719 on the Thornton plantation “Snow Creek’ in Spotsylvania County, the daughter of Francis Thornton and Mary Taliaferro. She married Thomas Meriwether about 1735; they were the parents of 11 children. After the death of Thomas, she married his uncle, Robert Lewis, whose first wife was Jane Meriwether. Elizabeth’s sister, Mildred, married, first, Nicholas Meriwether, a first cousin of Thomas, and second, Dr. Thomas Walker.

As noted by Heath Meriwether: “[Elizabeth Thornton] was descended from one of the old families of England whose ancestry was well established in 1363. On her mother’s side Elizabeth Thornton had ancestors who were among the most ancient in Europe. This was the Taliaferro family of Tuscany, Italy, one of whose members is said to have migrated to Normandy in the year 868, and whose descendant—a Taliaferro—was “among those present” when William the Conqueror successfully invaded Saxon England on Christmas Day, 1066.”

After the death of Thomas Meriwether, Elizabeth married Col. Robert Lewis, the widower of Jane Meriwether. They had no children.

Summary of Will of Elizabeth (Thornton) Meriwether Lewis

Date signed: Not known.
Witnesses: Charles Lewis, Robert Cobbs, Wm Lewis, John Wood, John Gilmer.
Executors: Francis and David Meriwether, sons; Thomas Johnson, son-in-law.

Beneficiary: Jane Merewether, daughter.

Will of Elizabeth Thornton Meriwether Lewis 64

I Elizabeth Lewis of the Parish of Fredericksville and County of Albemarle make my Last will & Testament in manner following. I give to my Daughter Jane Merewether all my Estate Real and Personal & mixt(?) hereby meaning to pass Everything which I have reserved(?) to her and her heirs for Ever which bequest I make to her in Consideration of her having been praetermotted in her fathers will and so not Entitled to any part of his Estate and I anex to the Bequest this Condition, that if She or any other person in her Name or right Shall Institute any Legal power for the Recovery of any part of her fathers Estate From her Brothers & Sisters or any person Claiming under them, that then the above Estate which I have bequeathed her, shall go first to Replace whatever she may Recover to the person from whom she Recovers it and the Residue to all my Sons and Daughters, Except the said Jane or to their Representatives if any of them be dead such Representatives, being to take Only the proportion their parent Would have taken if living, and I further Require her as soon as she attains her Age of Twenty One years, to Execute Such Instruments of Release as Shall be Sufficient in Law to barr any right She may have to any part of her fathers Estate, I Empower my Executors to Sell my Slave Will Beck if they think proper and also any other part of my Estate except my other Slaves. Lastly I appoint my sons Francis and David Meriwether and my Son in Law Thomas Johnson Executors of this my will

Elizabeth Lewis
Signed in the presence of the Testratrice by
Chas Lewis, Robert Cobbs, Wm Lewis, John Wood, John Gilmer

At Albemarle October Court 1774
This will was presented to Court and proved by the Oath of Two Witnesses thereto & Ordered to be Recorded, and on the Motion of Francis Meriwether and Thomas Johnson Executors therein named (something crossed out) Oath(?) According to Law Certificate was granted them for Obtaining a probat in due form on their giving Security where upon they entered into Bond with William Lewis and John Gilmer their Securitys and Acknowledged it Accordingly
Teste
John Nichols Clk

In her will, she leaves her estate to daughter Jane Meriwether “because of her having been praetermotted in her father’s will.” Thomas’ will was written before Jane was born and apparently did not add a codicil for his unborn child. Elizabeth was very definite that Jane was not to try to get anything her father left.

^NAME **SLH has Elizabeth Taliaferro Thornton. Source?
^BIRTH-DEATH **SLH has Louisa Co.

Elizabeth Thornton 62

[Elizabeth Thornton] was descended from one of the old families of England whose ancestry was well established in 1363. On her mother’s side Elizabeth Thornton had ancestors who were among the most ancient in Europe. This was the Taliaferro family of Tuscany, Italy, one of whose members is said to have migrated to Normandy in the year 868, and whose descendant—a Taliaferro—was “among those present” when William the Conqueror successfully invaded Saxon England on Christmas Day, 1066. The mother of Elizabeth and Mildred Thornton (both of whom married a Meriwether) was Mary Taliaferro who married Francis Thornton, Sr. The name Taliaferro has been subject to great abuse in its pronunciation by historians, members of the family who bear the name, and by the general public. The original pronunciation was “Tal-ya’-ferro,” but it is today generally pronounced as “Tolliver,” but at least its orthography is still Taliaferro. It seems a shame that a really beautiful gem like Tal-ya’-ferro should be rendered as Tolliver. O tempora! O mores! It is my hope that the gentle lecture here will induce those using this musical nomenclature, at least as to spelling, to pronounce it as it so justly deserves to be.

Thomas Meriwether & Elizabeth Thornton 65
Nelson Heath Meriwether

The marriage of Thomas Meriwether and Elizabeth Thornton brought together two families who were well established in the political and governing groups in Virginia from 1699 to 1744, and both families held great tracts of land, and from 1744 until after the Revolution several counties were largely populated by these two families. Their close ties with many of the famous names of the Revolution gave them a secure position for many years in the political, economic and social life in Virginia. All of these families and their allied lines were not only landowners who saw to the management of their plantations with its myriad details of management and marketing, but whose duties, both husband and wife, was equally to supervise their slaves as well as look to their general well-being. It has been the custom of many to regard the planter class as one who had no duties other than to live graciously and entertain on a lavish scale. Only a little cursory reading of old letters and historical accounts of the work- a-day world of the owner and his wife on these plantations reveal that the mistress of such an establishment was the first to arise and the last to retire; she it was who carried the keys to the larder and who delegated the tasks of the day for the immediate household. It might be the duty of their slaves to do the actual work of cooking, washing, cleaning, but always there was the guiding hand for direction and ad- vice and the settlement of the jealousies that arose between the cook and other domestics.

The master of such a plantation, to be successful, might have the advantage of an overseer; but the management of the land, what crops to be planted and when, tending and harvesting the crops, all found their way to the plantation owner, to say nothing of his decisions as affecting the placement of his slaves to various duties on the plantation—which above the regular agricultural pursuits-had a carpenter and blacksmith shop. There was never a successful operation of these landed estates that did not have a knowledgeable and hard-working owner at its head.

The Thomas Meriwether operation was such a one as has been described. As his family increased and grew to maturity the sons were trained for managerial duties at home, as were their sisters, to assume their duties in the management of a home. Because of Thomas's large holding he was able to provide all of his sons with great plantations when they married, which was usually at an early age. Thomas also gave several of his daughters plantations at the time of their marriages. He had about 9,000 acres in his several estates. By the time of his death in 1756 this holding had dwindled to 3,000 acres through his gifts of land to his children.