ALS, DLC:GW.

Abishai C. Thomas left his Georgia home as a young man and found employment in Washington, N.C., as a land agent of John Gray Blount. Thomas served in the Revolution as a deputy quartermaster general for the Continental Army and later secured, probably through Blount’s influence, the office of agent for settling the accounts of North Carolina with the United States. He was a member of the North Carolina assembly in 1787. Thomas served as Blount’s business agent in New York from January 1789 until September 1790 (Blount Papers, description begins Alice Barnwell Keith et al., eds. The John Gray Blount Papers. 4 vols. Raleigh, N.C., 1952–82. description ends 1:391, n.26, 459–60, 2:61, 102, 611–12). Congressman Timothy Bloodworth recommended Thomas for the position of North Carolina loans commissioner the day after the president nominated William Skinner for the office, and Thomas did not receive any federal appointment from GW (GW to the U.S. Senate, 6 Aug. 1790 [second letter]; Bloodworth to GW, 7 Aug. 1790). He nevertheless followed the federal government to Philadelphia and lived there until 1794. In November 1795 Thomas left for London to conduct business for David Allison. In the summer of 1799 Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert made Thomas the principal clerk of the new Navy Department at an annual salary of $1,200, and he served in that position until 1801 (Blount Papers, description begins Alice Barnwell Keith et al., eds. The John Gray Blount Papers. 4 vols. Raleigh, N.C., 1952–82. description ends 2:611–12, 3:31, n.74, 439).