Thomas TINSLEY (c. 1618 - 1702)

Thomas Tinsley, emigrant and primogenitor of the Tinsley family in America,
was born circa 1618, in Yorkshire, England. Early research indicates that 
he married Elizabeth Randolph.

Thomas Tinsley arrived  in Jamestown, Virginia Colony, in 1638, his 
transportation furnished by John Robins of James City County.(1) In early 
land documents his name is spelled variously by scribes and copyists as 
Thomas Tilsley (1638), Thomas Tilsey (1650), and Thomas Tinslie (1655).(2)
Before he owned any land, Thomas Tinsley lived on a creek that was then 
known as Moses Run.  On February 7,1650 Philip Charles was granted 450 
acres on the west side of the Chickahominy River upon Moses Run and 
described as next above Thomas Tinsley.(3)

The first patent of land to Thomas Tinsley was issued December 13, 1650, 
by Sir William Berkeley, colonial governor, for 300 acres upon Moses Run, 
on the west side of Chickahominy River in James City County, Virginia. The 
grant was described as bounded west by north upon the Run; south by west 
upon the land of Mr. Theodore Moses; east by north upon Mr. Foyes land; 
and north by west upon the woods. The said land was granted unto Thomas 
Tinsley for paying the price of passage from England to the colony for 
emigrants Robert Arwin, Milliscent Thompson, Walter Villecott, Abraham 
Watson, Thomas Sawyer, and Elin. Faning.(4)

By 1662 Thomas Tinsley had bought 300 more acres of land from Martin Baker,
on the south side of the York River in New Kent County.(5) A patent was 
issued to John Bowman on May 15, 1672, for 108 acres "on the North side of 
James River on the west side of Chickahominy river adjoining to Thomas 
Tinsley."(6)

On February 28, 1689, Thomas Tinsley was involved in the remarking of his 
land in St. Peter's Parish, and during the year helped "Cleere the roades 
in his prescinct...up the north Side of Totopotomoys Creeke."(7)

Thomas Tinsley built his home on Totopotomoy Creek, formerly known as 
Moses Run, twelve miles north of the present site of Richmond. This creek, 
enclosing a peninsula in the present Hanover County, was named for
Totopotomoy (d.1656), chief of the Pamunkey Indians and a successor to 
Powhatan. The ancestral place of the Tinsley family, called "Totomoi," 
still remains in the possession of descendants.(8)

The first westward expedition in 1669 of John Lederer, the German traveler 
and explorer, to find a passage through the Blue Ridge and Appalachian 
mountains, passed through the immediate vicinity where Thomas Tinsley 
lived. The narrative of the journey mentions Totopotomoy, who had been 
killed some thirteen years previously, and also describes the killing 
nearby of a wildcat:

"The next day falling into Marish grounds between Pemaeoncock [York
River] and the head of the River Matapeneugh, the Heaviness of the way
obliged me to cross Pemaeoncoek, where its North and South-branch (called
Ackmick) joyn in one. In the Peninsula made by these two branches, a great
Indian King called Tottopottoma was heretofore slain in Battel, fighting 
for the Christians against the Mahocks and Nahyssans, from whence it 
retains his name to this day. Travelling thorow the Woods, a Doe seized 
by a wild Cat crossed our way; the miserable creature being even spent and 
breathless with the burden and cruely of her rider, who having fastned on 
her shoulder, left not sucking out her bloud until she sunk under him; 
which one of the Indians perceiving, let fly a luckie Arrow, which 
piercing him thorow the belly, made him quit his prey already slain, 
and turn with a terrible grimas at us; but his strength and spirits 
falling him, we escaped his revenge, which had certainly ensued, were 
not his wound mortal. This creature is something bigger than our English 
fox, of a reddish grey colour, and in figure every way agreeing with an 
ordinary Cat; fierce, ravenous and cunning."(9)

Thomas Tinsley was an extensive planter. He shipped tobacco to England and 
imported domestic luxuries and clothing.(10) Virginia history states that 
he was a man of high esteem, great influence, and courage.(11)

Thomas Tinsley took part in Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, the opening gun of 
the long struggle for American independence. One seat of discontent 
preceeding the rebellion was Blisland Parish, mother parish of St. Peter's 
in James City and New Kent counties.  Tinsley signed the Blisland Parish 
Grievances, dated April 2, 1677, a document listing a number of oppressions 
of the British government under Sir William Berkeley that led to the
rebellion. The paper was presented to three royal commissioners sent from 
England to the colony to investigate the armed revolt.  Included in the 
complaints were high taxes, Indian murders and depredations, exactions of 
sheriffs, selling of strong drink during court days, and duties levied on 
ships.  Signers of the grievances, distraught over having to obtain arms 

by any means, also made a plea for an arms magazine.(12)

An attachment of 900 Ibs. of tobacco was granted against the estate of 
Thomas Tinsley in Essex County, June 21, 1699, for his failure to appear 
in defense of a court suit initiated by Robert Payne.(13)

In his will, Thomas Tinsley left his eldest son Thomas Tinsley "one young 
Gray Stoned Colt branded TT."(14) This brand, used by him in seventeenth-
century Virginia, was one of the first in what is now the United States. 
His use of this ownership mark was 100 years before burned brands supposedly
came into limited use in Virginia. One researcher on seventeenth-century 
cattle in Virginia has made this statement: "Burned brands had come into 
limited use by the end of the eighteenth century.  George Washington 
burned "G.W." on his cattle, the position on the animal indicating the 
plantation where they were pastured.(15)

Thomas Tinsley followed the English custom of naming the first born son 
after the father, with this son inheriting the bulk of the estate.

His will is dated October 9, 1700, New Kent County, Virginia. Witnesses 
were Richard Meriwether, Jeremyah Poupe, and John Oakes. It was recorded 
in 1702, in New Kent County, upon the corporal oaths of Nicholas 
Meriwether and John Oakes.(18)

Sources:
(1) Greer, George Cabell [Clerk of the Virginia Land Office]. Early 
Virginia Immigrants, 1623-1666. W. C. Hill Printing Co., Richmond, Va. 
1912, p. 329.
(2) Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Grants 1623-1800. 
Vol. 1, 1623-1666. Abstracted and Indexed by Nell Marion Nugent. Baltimore,
Md. 1963. pp. 103, 204, 211-212, 323, 471.
(3) Patents Issued During the Regal Government. James City County Book 
No.2, p.307. [In] William & Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine. 
Vol. X, No. 2. October, 1901. p. 98.
(4) Patents No. 2, 1643-1651. Reel 2, Virginia State Library. p. 271.
(5) Cavaliers and Pioneers. op. cit., p. 471. 
(6) Patents Issued During the Regal Government, James City County Book 
No.6, p. 403. [In] William & Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine 
Vol. XII, No. 1. July, 1903. p. 23.
(7) Chamberlayne, C.G., Trans. and Ed., The Vestry Book and Register of 
St. Peter's Parish, New Kent and James City Counties, Virginia, 1684-1786. 
Richmond, Va. 1937. pp. 22, 89. 
(8) Virkus, Frederick A., Ed., The Abridged Compendium of American 
Genealogy. F. A. Virkus & Co., Chicago, Ill. Vol.111.1928. p.44.
(9) Lederer, John. The discoveries of John Lederer, in three several 
marches from Virginia, to the west of Carolina, and other parts of the 
continent; begun in March 1669, and ended in September 1670. Coil. and 
Trans. by Sir William Talbot baronet Printed by J. C. for Samuel Heyrick, 
at Grays-Innegate in Holborn. London. 1672. pp. 4-8.
(10) Brock, R. A. [Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society and the 
Southern Historical Society], "The Tinsley Family."  Virginia Cousins, by 
George Brown Goode. Richmond, Va. 1887. p. 212 [footnote].
(11) The Tinsleys of Virginia. [unpublished manuscript]. Compiled by 
Walter R. Tinsley, Roanoke, Va. [1938.]
(12) Chamberlayne, C. G., Trans. and Ed., The Vestry Book of Blisland 
(Blissland) Parish, New Kent and James City Counties, Virginia, 1721-1786. 
Richmond, Va. 1935. pp. xlii-xlvii. 
(13) Essex County Orders, 1695-1699. (Transcript). Reel 65. Virginia State 
Library. p.165. 
(14) Will of Thomas (1) Tinsley, the Emigrant. "Virginia Records." District
of Columbia Genealogical Records Committee, USDAR. 1945-46. pp. 1-3.
(15) Laing, Wesley N., "Cattle in Seventeenth-Century Virginia," Virginia 
Magazine of History and Biography. Vol.67, No.2, April, 1959. p. 160 
[footnote]. 
(16) Will of Thomas (1) Tinsley, the Emigrant. op. cit.