John Thomas, who, from 1743 until the dissolution of the Colonial Government, in 1776, was a Member of the General Assembly of the Colony, representing the County of Westchester ; and, from May, 1755, until the dissolution of the Colonial Government, in 1776, he was the First Judge of the Col. mial Court of Common Pleas for the County of Westchester-- both of which -offices could have been held by no one who was not welldisposed to the Colonial and Home Governments ; and neither of which was surrendered by him, while he lived.

The following extract from a letter from Timothy Wetmore, the Venerable Society's Schoolmaster at Rye, to the Secretary of that body, at London, dated "Bte, May 6, 1761," affords additional evidence of the political tendencies of the Thomas family, and of its hankerings after the power to manipulate the "patronage " of those in authority, throughout Westchester-county : "Mr. Thomas, who is one of the Representa- " tives in this County, and who, in Governour De Lancey's time, being "favoured with all the Administration of all Offices in the Country, civil " and military, by the help of which he has procured himself a large in- "terest in the County, especially in the distant and new Settlements, " which abound with a Set of People governed more by venality than "any thing else. This Gentleman, although one of the Society's " Missionaries' Sons, is so negligent and indifferent toward Religion " (in imitation of some of our great Men) that it has been a steady "Method with him, for years, not to attend Publick Worship, perhaps '• more than once or twice in a year, whose example has been mis- "chievous. This man is not only one of our Vestry (though very " little esteemed by the true friends of the Church), but has procured "that the Majority of the Vestry are Men that will be governed by "him; several of the Vestry are not of the Church ; and not one of "them a communicant in the Church; accordingly, the Church are " not at all consulted with regard to a successor," to the former Rector, who had died in the preceding May.