John Chew Thomas

John Chew Thomas (October 15, 1764 – May 10, 1836) was an American lawyer, landowner, and Federalist politician who represented Maryland’s 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1799 to 1801. He also served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1796 to 1797, participating in state and national public life during the early years of the American republic.

Thomas was born on October 15, 1764, in Perryville, in Cecil County, Maryland, then a largely rural area along the Susquehanna River. He was educated in private schools, reflecting the opportunities available to members of established Maryland families in the late colonial and early national periods. Seeking advanced education, he attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, one of the leading institutions of higher learning in the new nation, and was graduated in 1783, shortly after the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War.

Following his university studies, Thomas read law in Philadelphia, preparing for a professional career in the legal field. He was admitted to the bar there on December 15, 1787, at a time when the city was emerging as a central hub of political and legal activity under the newly drafted Constitution. Although he qualified for legal practice, he did not engage in extensive practice at the bar, instead turning his attention to landholding and public service. Around 1789 he moved to “Fairland,” an estate in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, where he established himself as a planter and local figure of some prominence.

Thomas entered elective office in the Maryland House of Delegates, serving from 1796 to 1797. His tenure in the state legislature coincided with the formative years of the First Party System, in which Federalists and Democratic-Republicans contested the direction of the new federal government and its relationship to the states. Aligning with the Federalist Party, which generally favored a stronger national government and closer commercial ties with Great Britain, he built a political profile that led to his election to Congress.

In 1798, Thomas was elected as a Federalist to the Sixth Congress from Maryland’s 2nd congressional district. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1799, to March 3, 1801, during the administration of President John Adams. His congressional service took place against the backdrop of the Quasi-War with France, the controversy over the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the bitterly contested election of 1800. After completing his single term, he declined to be a candidate for reelection in 1801, withdrawing from national politics as the Federalist Party’s influence began to wane.

Following his congressional service, Thomas returned to his estate at Fairland in Anne Arundel County, where he continued to manage his property and engage in local affairs. Like many landowners of his time and region, he held enslaved people, whose labor supported the agricultural economy of his estate. In 1810, however, he sold Fairland and freed most of his slaves, a decision that marked a significant change in his personal and economic life and reflected evolving attitudes toward slavery among some members of the upper classes in the Mid-Atlantic states.

After divesting himself of Fairland, Thomas returned to Pennsylvania, where he spent his later years. He resided near Leiperville, in Delaware County, south of Philadelphia, living a more private life away from the national political stage. John Chew Thomas died near Leiperville on May 10, 1836. He was interred in the Chester Friends Meetinghouse Cemetery in Chester, Pennsylvania, indicating an association with the Society of Friends (Quakers) or their community in his final years.