43. THOMAS⁴ PURNELL (IV) (COL.) (THOMAS³, THOMAS², THOMAS¹) was born in Worcester Co., MD February 28, 1745. (Melanie Ayres Merryweather, Genealogy of the Purnell Family, p.6) THOMAS died 1790 in Worcester Co., MD, at 45 years of age.

He married SARAH MARSHALL in Worcester Co., MD, about 1770. SARAH was born in Northampton Co., VA 1748. SARAH was the daughter of THOMAS MARSHALL and SARAH MARSHALL. SARAH died 1803 in Worcester Co., MD, at 55 years of age. Sarah named her sons Thomas M. and Zadock Purnell, and daughter, Molly O. Purnell. She gave ten pounds each to grandchildren Molly O. Purnell and Thomas M. Purnell. Witnesses: Joseph Miller, Levin Duncan and Stephen White. Known as Thomas of Wallop's Neck, his father left him "Wallops Neck," "Baysend" and "East Gate." A piece of land in Northampton Co., VA, N51J descended from Thomas Marshall to his wife, Sarah, and then to his daughter, Sarah. In 1788 Thomas & Sarah Purnell sold this land to Sally Atkinson and John Purnell Marshall and they resold to Thomas Purnell, all of Worcester County; in 1801 a Zadock Purnell of Maryland sold the northeast 80 acres. (Ralph T. Whitelaw, Virginia's Eastern Shore, Camden, ME, Picton Press, 1951, p. 308)

Thomas was elected to serve in the Lower House of the MD Legislature from Worcester Co. in 1778, but did not attend. He was a County Court Justice, 1777, Commissioner of the Tax, 1778-1790, and was called Colonel in 1783. He took the Oath of Allegiance in Worcester Co. in 1778 before the Hon. Nathaniel Miller. He was a Captain in the Worcester Militia, Sinepuxent Bn., August 30, 1777, and Lieutenant Colonel on June 13, 1782. He was the Justice who administered the Oath of Allegiance in Worcester County in 1778. He was commissioned a Judge of the Court of Appeals for Worcester on May 27, 1778. (Henry C. Peden, Jr., Revolutionary Patriots of Worcester & Somerset Cos. MD, Willow Bend, Westminster, MD, 1999, p. 240)

THOMAS PURNELL (IV) (Col.) and SARAH MARSHALL had the following children:

152 i. ZADOCK⁵ PURNELL. ZADOCK died 1807 in Worcester Co., MD. Administration bonds posted by Thomas M. Purnell, George W. Purnell, Littleton R. Purnell and Isaac Franklin.

+ 153 ii. JOHN PURNELL (Cpt.) was born about 1770.

154 iii. THOMAS MARSHALL PURNELL was born in Worcester Co., MD 1775. THOMAS died 1816 in Worcester Co., MD, at 41 years of age. Thomas' will asked that the graveyard at Wallops Neck where his mother and father and brothers Zadock and John are burried to be enclosed with brick 50 square feet and the graves be covered with marble slabs. He named his sister, Mary O. Purnell, and children of his brother, John; but, he did not name them individually. Witnesses were John S. Spence and Henry Franklin, Jr. and was entered for probate by George W. Purnell. (The will abstract shows him Thomas M. Purnell of Thomas M. - unable to confirm a middle name for his father or another Thomas M. Purnell who would be his contemporary) Melanie Ayres Merryweather shows him with the military rank of Corporal.

+ 155 iv. MARY "MOLLY" OUTTEN PURNELL was born August 13, 1782.

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