Thomas Stone: MD Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Thomas Stone was born in 1743, at Poynton Manor, Durham Parish, Charles County, Maryland, to David and Elizabeth (Jenifer) Stone. The exact date of his birth is unknown, and he was the oldest of possibly seven children. The Stone family ancestry can be traced to England, from where their Great-Great Grandfather, William Stone, and his wife, Elizabeth, immigrated to Virginia in 1628. William Stone was appointed Governor of Maryland by Lord Baltimore in 1648, and in 1654, he moved to Maryland, where he was granted the Poynton Manor estate for his services.

            Not much is known about his childhood, but we do know that he came from a well-to-do family and, at age 15, studied under Blaizedel. He has to ride 10 miles to school on horseback, and once he completes his studies, he decides to study law. In 1760, he moved to Annapolis and began to study law under Thomas Johnson. During this time, he meets and becomes friends with William Paca and Samuel Chase. Even though his father was well-to-do, Stone had to borrow money to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1764, and once he established a practice in Frederick, Maryland, he paid back the loans quickly.

            From 1764 to 1768, he lived in Frederick, Maryland, and rode the circuit between Annapolis, Philadelphia, and Frederick. He married Margaret Brown in 1768, who was the daughter of Dr. Gustavus and Margaret (Black Boyd) Brown. They would have three children together, with the first being born in 1769, named Frederick. He would die in 1793 of yellow fever when he was 18 years old. Their next child, Margaret, was born in 1771 and died in 1809, in Stafford County, Virginia. She married John Moncure Daniel, MD, and they had eight children. Their final child, a daughter named Mildred, was born on February 27, 1772, and passed away in Alexandria, Virginia, on October 26, 1837. She married Travers D. Daniel Jr. and had four children. His wife Margaret’s brother-in-law, Dr. Brown, would be one of George Washington’s physicians during his final illness in 1799.

            In 1770, Thomas Stone purchased a 442-acre plantation, which he called Habre de Venture, using the £ 1,000 dowry he received when he married Margaret. He and his wife would live there for the rest of their lives. Their descendants would own the property until 1936, when they sold it. It would stay in private ownership until 1977, when a fire ravaged the main portion of the home. It was declared a national historic site in 1978 and bought by the National Park Service in 1981, which set out to restore it. It was finally opened to the public in 1997 and contains 322 of the original 442 acres. He owns slaves who work the land and acquires them through inheritance or purchase. The farm, itself, was not the sole source of income, and he was still dependent on his lawyer’s income to sustain his family.

            His father died in 1773, and the care of his six younger siblings was left to him. His father’s entire estate was left to his eldest son from a previous marriage. His younger brother Michael Jenner Stone, who managed Stone’s estates, would serve in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1781 through 1783. He was also a member of the Maryland Ratifying Convention in 1789 and of Congress from 1789 to 1791. Another brother, John Hoskins Stone, served in the Revolutionary War and rose to the rank of Colonel and Commander of the First Maryland Regiment. He was wounded at the Battle of Germantown and was left crippled for the rest of his life, but this did not stop him from continuing his military service. His service would end in 1779 when he was wounded again. John served on the Maryland State Executive Council from 1779 to 1785 and was then elected Governor of Maryland in 1794, serving until 1797.

Also in 1773, he handled a poll tax case, in which he was the prosecutor and Paca and Chase were the defense attorneys. His friends, to win the case, portray him and the other prosecutors as defending a tax that violated the colonists’ rights as Englishmen. This caused the county sheriff not to collect the fees that Stone and the other prosecutors were required to collect. As a result, in 1774, he would experience difficulties with his creditors. This should have put a damper on his political activities, but it does not. There is no direct evidence pointing to a specific cause that Thomas Stone engages in, such as protesting the Stamp Act or the subsequent acts that followed. We know that, over time, he began to distrust the British government, and that this distrust appears to have fueled his interest in the patriot cause.

            In June of that same year, he was appointed to the Charles County Committee of Correspondence and the First Provincial Convention at Annapolis. In this position, he expanded his sphere of influence. This was the beginning of his political career, as it does not appear he held any other office before this appointment. He was reappointed to the Second Provincial Convention and supported the trade embargo against Great Britain. He works to raise voluntary militia troops and by 1775, becomes a draft, which would eventually form the Maryland Line of the Continental Army.

            In April of 1775, he was chosen as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. He was the first representative not to have sat in the legislature, nor to have a strong anti-proprietary record. It appears he was chosen because he was a moderate who would be less inclined to jump into the independence movement and instead follow a more cautious path, taking all the necessary steps to reconcile before deciding to break. This was Maryland’s position before June of 1776.

Stone was seated in May and, on his arrival, lived up to his reputation as a moderate who favored reconciliation over independence. This was initially helpful because the Maryland Convention at the time sought reconciliation. Over time, this would change, especially after the efforts of Chase, Carroll, and Paca, who traveled the colony gathering support for independence. In June of 1776, Maryland changes its tune, and new instructions are issued:

“That the instructions given to their deputies be recalled, and the restrictions therein contained, removed; and that the deputies of said colony, or any three or more of them, be authorized and empowered to concur with the other united colonies, or a majority of them, in declaring the united colonies free and independent states; in forming such further compact and confederation between them; in making foreign alliances; and in adopting such other measures as shall be adjudged necessary for securing the liberties of America; and that said colony will hold itself bound by the resolutions of the majority of the united colonies in the premises; provided the sole and exclusive right of regulating the internal government and police of that colony be reserved to the people thereof.”[1]

There had been rumors that British emissaries would arrive to negotiate some form of reconciliation, which made him reluctant to pursue independence. Still, when they did not, he realized that breaking from Great Britain to form their own country was the only option.

            He voted in favor of independence on July 2 and wrote to the Maryland Council of Safety on July 12: “May God send Victory to the Arm lifted in Support of righteousness, Virtue & Freedom, and crush even to destruction the power which wantonly would trample on the rights of mankind.”[2]  He then signs the engrossed copy on August 2. During the New York campaign, he would speak out in Congress one last time regarding negotiations for an amicable settlement between Britain and the Colonies. He believed any peace agreement had to be “upon Terms of Security and Justice to America” and “War, anything is preferable to the Surrender of our Rights.” [3]  He does get frustrated with the more radical members of Congress. Before getting the Maryland provincial convention’s approval to vote for independence he wrote: “truly disagreeable – could I sit with the same happy Indifference I observe in others when matters of last consequence are in agitation or could I bring my mind to view with Apathy the destructive Tendency of Measures or at least appearing to me so, which I can’t prevent, or could I bring my Tempter to bend to the Principles of those, who are perhaps wiser than myself, I should be less miserable.” And then he wrote again: “If our councils Could but be tempered with a proper Degree of moderation & attention to the Inclinations & even weaknesses of our people all would be well; but I think they will not drive & an Attempt to do such an injury to the feelings of freemen will have fatal Consequences.”[4]  Throughout this whole process, it appears he really wants the vote he cast for independence to be representative of the people who he was representing.  As such, he would not publicly advocate for independence.

His committee work included serving on the committee that drafted the Articles of Confederation. The Maryland delegation was the one that hindered the process, and it was not agreed to until 1777, thus not voted into effect by the states until 1781. He also works on the military supply and procurement committees. He would pass military intelligence between Congress and those in Annapolis. In September of 1776, he was elected to the Maryland State Senate and left the Continental Congress sometime between 1776 and 1778, depending on the source one reads.

After leaving Congress, Stone served in the Maryland Senate until 1787. In 1777, he had to step down from his duties in the Senate to attend to his family. At the time, his wife received a smallpox inoculation, which proved troublesome. He attended 22 sessions during his tenure, some lasting as long as four months. As well, over 800 bills are enacted into law, helping to establish the state government or support the war. He would briefly return to Congress in 1778 but decided he could not do so while maintaining his law practice and his duties in the Maryland Senate, and he quickly resigned.

Stone would be re-elected to the Confederation Congress in 1783 and chosen President pro-tempre in 1784. He was able to participate because they are sitting in Annapolis, where he can attend to all of his other duties. His tenure here had reenergized his sense of nationalism because he had seen, over time, the failures of various confederations. He retired from Congress in 1784 and returned to Port Tobacco.

His law practice in Port Tobacco remained lucrative, and he continued to travel between there and Annapolis while also riding the circuit. Because of ill health, he eventually tried to cut back on his law practice but was unable to do so, and at one point in the early 1780s, he represented almost half of all the cases brought to court in Charles County. Even Charles Carroll of Carrollton would seek out his services. He invested in more land with his brother, attending to the property in Port Tobacco, and he moved to a Georgian home in Annapolis. He would have some financial issues because of his public service, and as such, had to hire slaves out as well as sell some of them. The last of his public service occurs in 1785 when he attends the Mount Vernon Convention and represents Maryland in negotiations with Virginia over the use of the Potomac River.

In 1787, Stone is elected to the Constitutional Convention but does not attend due to his wife’s ill health. He initially supported autonomy for the new states when he began in 1776, but over time, he came to understand that the nation needed a cohesive government to succeed. He supported the convention even though he was unable to attend.

Margaret, his wife, had received the smallpox vaccine in 1777 and became ill as a result. She suffered from declining health for the next ten years and died in June of 1787. In those days, the vaccine consisted of taking a small amount of pus from an infected person and putting it into an incision of a non-infected person. Then the now-inoculated individual would come down with a mild form of smallpox, recover, and become immune to the disease.

Upon the death of his wife in June of 1787, Stone grieved deeply and went into a depression. He had been deeply in love with his wife, and his doctor advised him to go to Europe for some rest, to recover from her death. He gives up his law practice, but dies four months later, on October 5, 1787, while waiting for the ship in Alexandria, Virginia. He is buried on his property in Port Tobacco, Maryland. Little is known about him as his papers were not preserved. This was most likely due to the death of his son at a young age, and he himself never penned any memoir.[5]

Tidbits

Described as tall, thin, and pale, Amiable, but had the appearance of austerity.

He is not pictured in Johnathon Trumbull’s famous painting of the Declaration, which hangs in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

He was unassuming and did not seek the limelight for himself. He wrote in May of 1776, “I am not ambitious of elevated Station” and that others in Congress “perhaps are wiser than myself”

Later, when he was a member of the Maryland Senate, he defended himself in a long essay by saying “that I am ignorant of many things I have endeavored to know…:,

[1] http://colonialhall.com/stone/stone.php

[2] http://www.dsdi1776.com/signers‑by‑state/

[3] Lee, Jean B. “In Search of Thomas Stone, Essential Revolutionary” Maryland Historical Magazine 92, no. 3 (Fall1997): 298

[4] Lee, Jean B. “In Search of Thomas Stone, Essential Revolutionary” 299-300

[5] Selected quotes come from Lee, Jean B. “In Search of Thomas Stone, Essential Revolutionary” Maryland Historical Magazine 92, no. 3 (Fall1997): 288