| Biography* | | Thomas(3) Clark, son of Thomas(2) and Elizabeth (Sampson) Clarke, was brobably born about 1677-78. He first appears in the family of his brother Sampson Clarke in Surry County in 1699, but moved back to Isle of Wight County for a few years thereafter. He was married by August 29, 1700, when he and his wife Susannah witnessed a deed from Rebecca Gutridge of Isle of Wight County, to John Prison of Surry (Surry D.&W. 1694-1709, p. 215). Thomas Clarke was an appraiser of the estate of John Wilkton in Isle of Wight County August 9, 1701 (Chapman, I, 60), and is shown as a Cornet in that county in 1702, in a list of magistrates and militia who prepared an address of loyalty to Queen Anne of England (Boddie, 17th Cent., p. 169). There is no present clue to the maiden name of Susannah, wife of Thomas(3) Clarke, except the bare possibility that she was a daughter of George Williams of Isle of Wight County, who in his will, dated Aug. 26, 1737, and probated Feb. 25, 1744, leaves his property to his wife Elizabeth; sons George, Thomas, and Roland; and a plantation to his grandson Thomas Clark (who may have been Thomas(4) Clark, son of Thomas(3)). Thomas Clark deeded this land in Isle of Wight County to Nicholas Williams Oct. 13, 1748. I am not at all sure, however, that this Thomas Clark was identical with the son of Thomas(3). All the evidence points to this George Williams as being a son of a Roland Williams, who died in Isle of Wight County in 1679, and left two children, George and Mary, both of whom were minors and left in the guardianship of friends. Now we have mentioned that Susannah, wife of Thomas(3) Clark, was married to him by 1700, and it is difficult to see how a boy who was under guardianship in 1679 could have had a daughter who was married just 21 years later. All that can be said is that it is barely possibly that Susannah, wife of Thomas Clark, was a daughter of this George Williams. In favor of the hypothesis is the fact that if the Thomas Clark of George Williams' will was not Thomas(4) Clark, son of Thomas(3) and Susannah, it is hard to tell who else it could have been, for there is no other Thomas Clark revealed by the records from 1744-48, except Thomas(4).
Thomas(3) Clark moved back to Surry County by 1713, for Thomas Pittman of Isle of Wight deeded to Thomas Clark of Surry, planter, 150 acres in Lawnes Creek Parish Nov. 17, 1713 (D&W 1709-14, p. 164). He remained in Surry County until November 19, 1723, when he deeded the above land to Thomas Morland of Isle of Wight, and his wife Susannah relinquished her dower in it (D&W 1715-30, p. 501-2). The family then moved to Bertie County, N.C., just across the border from Isle of Wight Co., Va., and Thomas(3) Clark died there in 1728. The will of Thomas Clarke, dated April 25, 1728, leaves a bequest to his son Thomas Clarke; leaves the rest of his estate to his wife, and at her death or marriage to be divided among his 9 children, Thomas, Elizabeth, Mary, Lewis, William, John, Matthew, Grace and Bridget; mentions his two plantations on the county line adjoining Thomas Boykin, and that his wife is not to falsify the promise made to Nehemiah Joyner that he should possess some of the land during his (Nehemiah's) wife's life; appoints his wife and son Thomas executors; witnesses, Nehemiah Joyner and Ellis Braddy (N.C. Wills to 1760, Bertie County, Vol. VI., p. 51, at Raleigh). The wife Susannah Clark was still living on Feb. 13, 1732/3, when she deeded 50 acres near the county line adjoining Thomas Boykin to James Joyner (probably a son of Nehemiah and Elizabeth Brown Joyner) (Bertie Co. D.B. "D", p. 29).1 |