... I. Thomas Todd 5 (Anna 4, John 3, Daniel 2, William 1 Gorsuch), son of Thomas and Anna 4 (Gorsuch) Todd, is shown from his tombstone inscription at Toddsbury, Gloucester County, Virginia, to have been born in 1660 and to have died Jan. 16, 1724-5 (Wm. & Mary Col. Quart. Ill; 16-16). He was certainly the eldest son and was named by his father as executor. Although retaining possession of the estate in Maryland at North Point on the Patapsco, which he inherited as heir at law of his father, and where his son Thomas 6 settled and lived, there is no reason to believe that Thomas 5 Todd himself actually lived in Maryland after his father's death. His home was at Toddsbury on the North River, Mobjack Bay, Gloucester County, the Virginia estate which he inherited from his father. An interesting sketch of Toddsbury may be found in Lancaster's Historic Virginia Homes and Churches. The photograph accompanying it was reproduced in the last number of this Magazine.
Mr. Lancaster believes that the old bouse which is still standing was built by Thomas Todd, the elder. ... Owing to the destruction of the Gloucester County records comparatively little is known in regard to this Thomas 5 Todd. His tombstone inscription refers to him as Capt. Thomas Todd. This was doubtless a military title. He was a Justice of the Peace of Gloucester from 1698 to 1702 Va. Mag. 1; 235 and Wilson M. Cary MSS.)
It has been learned comparatively recently that he married Elizabeth Bernard, daughter of Col. William Bernard* and his wife Lucy Higginson.
Proof of this statement is to be found in an old family record made by Col. William Spotswood Fontaine June 7, 1833 at the dictation of Col. John Spotswood Stryken, fourth in direct descent from Thomas 5 and Elizabeth (Bernard) Todd. An account of the recent discovery of this family memorandum, valuable not only because the peculiar circumstances under which it was written make the accuracy of its statements inherently probable, but because all of the other statements contained in it have been checked up independently and found to be true. This record appeared in the William and Mary Quarterly (19; 177-184) and is especially valuable since it is the only direct evidence of the identity of the wife of Thomas 5 Todd. It will hereafter be referred to as the Fontaine MSS. This record refers to "Thomas Todd of Toddsbury and his wife Elizabeth Bernard," and their children, and states that "Mrs. Todd was the daughter of Col. William Bernard and his wife Lucy, widow Burwell, a daughter of a Mr. Hickerson [Higginsoni. Thomas Todd and his wife, Elizabeth Bernard, had a, large family, namely, Thomas who went to Maryland; Richard, Philip, and Christopher were the sons; the daughters were Anne, who married a Cooke; Lucy, who married first a man named O'Brien; secondly, John Baylor, and became the mother of Col. John Baylor of Caroline; Elizabeth who first married a Scotchman named Seaton, and secondly my great grandfather Colonel Augustine Moore. Another daughter, whose name I do not remember just now, married a man named North." The writer then proceeds to carry down the Moore line. It is interesting to note that Bernard as a Christian name has been carried down in the lines of at least three of the children of Thomas 5 and Elizabeth (Bernard) Todd. It has been seen that the Fontaine MSS names as the children of Thomas 5 and Elizabeth Todd, viz. : sons, Thomas 6, Richard 6, Philip 6, and Christopher 6, and daughters, Anne 6, Lucy 6 and Elizabeth 6 and a fourth unnamed daughter, Mrs. North 6.
It may be here stated that the will of his eldest son Thomas 6 of Maryland, 1714-5, (see post) mentions no sisters, but refers to his brothers William 6, Philip 6, and Christopher 6. It is to be noted that William 6 is not mentioned in the Fontaine MSS, while Richard' is not mentioned in the will of his brother Thomas 6.
The Toddsbury graveyard, in addition to the stone of Thomas Todd 5 already referred to, contains the following tombstone inscriptions*, all of which certainly refer to the descendants of Thomas Todd 6, viz.,
Captain Christopher Todd — Born April 2, 1690— Died March 26, 1743;
Frances Todd— Born April 12, 1692 — Died November 5, 1693;
Lucy Tabb— Daughter of Christopher & Elizabeth Todd— Born November 20, 1721 — Died February 18, 1791.
See William and Mary College Quarterly, III; p. 14 et seq, for copies of these inscriptions in full.
Elizabeth (Bernard) Todd, the wife of Thomas' Todd was bom between 1653 and 1665. The date of her death is unknown.
Unfortunately, there is no copy in existence, as far as is known, of the will of Thomas 5 Todd, dated March 4, 1722-3, and recorded in Gloucester. In Henning's Statutes are to be found several acts of the Assembly breaking the entail of lands in Gloucester, King and Queen, and Orange counties, left by him to his sons or their heirs, the acts referring by name to his sons, Richard, William and Philip and Christopher, and also mentioning a will of the above date.
From the above sources it is shown that Thomas 5 Todd had five sons, Thomas 6, Richard 6, William 6, Philip 6 and Christopher 6; from the Fontaine MSS and the Robert North Bible I see Frances 6 Todd post), we learn the names of four daughters, Anne 6, Lucy 6, Elizabeth 6 and Frances 6; from the will of his son-in-law Jonathan Hide (see post) it is learned that there was a fifth daughter, unnamed, who became Hide's wife, while the Toddsbury tombstone inscriptions indicate that there was another Frances, a sixth daughter, who died in childhood.
Thomas Todd 5 would appear from these Acts to have possessed in addition to Toddsbury, other large landed estates in Virginia. As his father Thomas Todd had died intestate as regards his lands in both Virginia and Maryland, Thomas 5 as the eldest son inherited them as the heir at law and added further to his father's holdings. As regards the Maryland lands, Thomas 5 Todd the younger, although a non-resident, maintained his title in them and turned the North Point plantations over to his eldest son Thomas 6 about fifteen years before his own death, the son becoming a resident of Maryland. Rather curiously, the Virginia estate Toddsbury, passed to Thomas's 5 youngest son Christopher 6. Had the younger Thomas 6 Todd not been sent to occupy the Patapsco plantation it seems probable that the laws of Maryland against the indefinite holding of land by non-resident heirs would have operated unfavorably as far as Thomas 5 Todd and his descendants resident in Virginia were concerned. In fact James 5 Todd, a younger brother of Thomas 5, who remained with his mother in Maryland after his father's death, actually requested the Land Office to resurvey certain minor tracts which formerly belonged to his father, for him as his heir. Probably to strengthen his title, as well as to establish his survey lines, Thomas 5 Todd describing himself as of Gloucester County, Virginia, March 21, 1697, petitioned the Land Office for a special survey to bring into one tract of 1082 acres four adjoining tracts owned by him in Baltimore County, viz.: Denton 190 acres; North Point 330 acres; and two separate parts of a larger tract. Old Road, of 287 acres and 275 acres respectively. This survey was executed July 11, 1700 (Annap. Warrants 6; 142), but a new patent does not appear to have been issued.
Thomas 5 Todd had previously disposed of a few of his scattered Baltimore County land holdings inherited from his father. Describing himself as of Ware Parish, Gloster, gent., Oct. 9, 1695, he executes a confirmatory deed to Stephen Johnson to 250 acres which he had previously given to his brother James Todd and which the latter had sold to Johnson in 1694, the land being part of a larger tract, Todd's Range, 400 acres [in Patapsco Neck] on Back River (Balto. Deeds LS: IK, 501).
Thomas 5 Todd and [his uncle] Charles 4 Gorsuch Dec. 12, 1683, recorded a deed of division by which Todd received an absolute title in 275 acres, one-fourth of a tract of 1100 acres [Old Road] which Todd's father Thomas Todd, decd., and Charles Gorsuch held jointly (Balto. Deeds RM, HS, 275).
William Buckner of Gloucester County, Virginia, Sept. 3, 1722, was appointed under power of attorney by Thomas 5 Todd to dispose of Todd's personal property in Maryland, after the death of his son Thomas 6. (Balto. Deeds IS:T, 51).
