Thomas Ringgold (ca. 1778–1818), a resident of Washington County, Maryland, was described by his brother, Maryland congressman Samuel Ringgold, as “quite a madman” with “no friend who can controul him.” In 1798 Ringgold conveyed his land and other assets in trust to his younger brothers Samuel and Tench Ringgold to pay his debts. He executed a second deed to the same trustees in 1807 to provide for his estranged wife and children and his father’s debts. In 1811 Ringgold’s wife, Mary Gittings Ringgold, began fifteen years of protracted but ultimately successful litigation against her brothers-in-law to recover some of these assets (Samuel Ringgold to Arch McCall, 14 May 1804 [PHi: Cadwalader Collection, ser. 10]; M. Ringgold et al. v. S. & T. Ringgold, case decided in Court of Appeals of Maryland, June 1826, and reported in Thomas Harris and Richard W. Gill, Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Court of Appeals of Maryland [1828–29], 1:11–86; Samuel Webster Piper and Dale Walton Morrow, Washington County Cemeteries [1992–94], 1:319).