EASTON, MARYLAND — Philip Francis Thomas — born in Easton on Sept. 12, 1810 — died in Baltimore on Oct. 2, 1890. The Maryland State Archives biography places his grave at Spring Hill Cemetery in Easton.

MSA SC 3520-1459 names his parents as Dr. Tristram Thomas and Maria Francis Thomas. It places his schooling at Easton Academy and two years at Dickinson College, then admission to the bar in 1831 and a long Eastern Shore law practice. The record lists two marriages — Sarah Maria Kerr on Feb. 5, 1835, and, after her death in 1870, Clintonia (Wright) May on Jan. 29, 1876 — and thirteen children by the first marriage. The Archives also note an Episcopalian affiliation.

The same Archives page lists Thomas as Maryland’s Democratic governor from 1848 to 1851. Before and after the State House years, the offices run through the House of Delegates, U.S. House terms in 1839–41 and 1875–77, judge of the Land Office for the Eastern Shore (1841–42), comptroller of the treasury (1851–53), collector of customs at the Port of Baltimore (1853–57), commissioner of patents (1860–61), and secretary of the Treasury in 1861.

The Talbot County chronology in the Maryland Manual mirrors the Easton birth date and dates the Treasury service from Dec. 12, 1860, to Jan. 14, 1861. Ahead of the 136th anniversary of the October death date, the Archives still fix the life to Easton ground — birth, Spring Hill burial, and the Shore offices in between.