Person:Thomas Buckner (4)

In genealogical sources, this Thomas Buckner is often called "Thomas Buckner of Mill Hill" after the estate in Caroline Co. Virginia that he owned in the early part of his life. The most important ones are Reminiscences of Eastern Oregon (1903) and the Buckners of Virginia (1907).

He apparently inherited Mill Hill from his father, John Buckner III. It was probably the property deeded to him and William Buckner by Elizabeth Buckner (John's widow) in 1750 and subsequently divided between Thomas and William (per the Caroline Co. order books). William's estate (later known as Lake Farm) was contiguous with Mill Hill, supporting the identification of Mill Hill and Lake Farm with the parcel divided in 1750.

A Virginia Gazette advertisement from 1766 indicates that Capt. Thomas Buckner had lost the 1000-odd-acre mill property by foreclosure to Humphrey Hill and John Robinson (then deceased) "some time ago". As prominent Virginian John Taylor was born there at Mill Hill in 1754, I think Thomas had probably lost the Mill Hill estate by the mid 1750s, and this article reveals how that happened. W.A. Crozier and W.D. Buckner in the Buckners of Virginia claimed that he also owned the estate called "Mount Pleasant", which may have been the post-foreclosure residence. It appears to have been somewhat north of Bowling Green and bounded on property of John Taylor in the late 1700s, so it was probably part of John Buckner Jr.'s massive glob of property on south side of the Mattaponi, though I have not been able to locate it exactly yet. The Caroline Order Books indicate that Thomas Buckner took out a mortgage to "James & Robert Berries, merchants in Glasgow" in 1753, and an Elizabeth Buckner made some kind of payment to Thomas Landrum in 1761. Landrum was a lawyer and was a witness to the mortgage, he was perhaps the Berries' agent. I would think that what this indicates is that Thomas took out the mortgage after the foreclosure on Mill Hill, either to buy a new property (Mt. Pleasant?) or to retain some of his former property. At any rate, 1753 is pretty likely to be the year they left Mill Hill.

A 1772 Caroline Co. court record notes that two minor Buckner children of a deceased Thomas Buckner, William and Elizabeth, chose guardians and that an Elizabeth Buckner was his widow (probably the second wife mentioned in traditional sources, Elizabeth Taliaferro). Land on the Mattaponi is also mentioned, so this is probably Thomas Buckner of Mill Hill, putting the date of his death some time around 1772. It's notable that William and Elizabeth chose George (J3-J2-J1) and John Buckner as their guardians. George was certainly a neighbor, but this would also tend to corroborate the idea that he and Thomas were brothers. It's not clear which John Buckner this is, though probably it was John Buckner who married Elizabeth Washington and was a neighbor. His relationship to the other Buckners is unclear. It's also worth noting that John Buckner's son Richard Henry Buckner ended up with possession of Mt. Pleasant some years later, which reinforces the idea that they were relatives of the Mill Hill Buckners.