Thomas Thackery, Council of Proprietors

See: U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935 New Jersey Camden Haddonfield Monthly Meeting Certificates of Removal Marriage Certificates, 1681-1741 page 90 of 104

HISTORY OF GLOUCESTER COUNTY. pps 127-128

(this refers to Thomas' father:

"Thomas Thackara was a native of Yorkshire, England, where the family suffered much religious persecution by reason of their adherence to the opinions and practices of George Fox, the Quaker. In 1656, Thomas Thackara was taken from a religious meeting at Leeds, and confined for several weeks in York Castle. He is probably the same Thomas Thackara who arrived at Salem, N. J., in the pinke " Ye Owner's Adventure," Nov. 18, 1681, and about the 1st of January, 1682, purchased a tract of land in the present Newton township, extending from Newton to Cooper's Creek. Together with Mark Newbie and William Cooper, he was appointed one of the judges of the court for the third tenth in the year 1682, and continued in office until 1685. The authority, in all probability, only extended to that of Orphans' Court, Quarter Sessions, and Common Pleas, and was held for the judicial division, as named in the law, until the year 1686, when the third and fourth tenth were made one bailiwick by the inhabitants, and thereafter so recognized by the Legislature of the province. No records seem to have been kept until 1686, when they began to be preserved in the Gloucester County clerk's office. He was also one of the land commissioners, a responsible duty in those days, having to examine titles, direct the deputy-surveyors in locating land, etc. He gave the land for the first Friends' meeting-house built at Newton, and William Cooper and he were selected by the Friends to sign the address of the Newton Meeting to the Yearly Meeting of London, protesting against the conduct of George Keith in his differences with the Society of Friends. His first wife probably died after his settlement here, as in 1689 he married Hepsibah Eastlack, a resident of these parts. His death occurred in 1702. "