Amos Thames (Tims), on our maternal side, was probably our earliest progenitor in the new world. Amazingly he landed on our shores on the Fourth of July. How's that for timing? However it was 77 years before THE Fourth of July.
He ran away from home in Northamptonshire England at age 13, indenturing himself as a cabin boy to Capt Richard Tibbetts on the good ship Anne and Mary, which sailed from Southampton. He arrived at Surry, North Carolina on July 4, 1699. For seven years, he had to work out his indentured servant status.
On January 22, 1717, he purchased 30 acres of land and began to farm it. He had several children, some of whom became prominent in the area. After a generation or two, the Thames family began to move west, settling in Mississippi, again for a couple of generations and then some worked their way into Texas. There is an account of an Amos Thames who fought in the Texas Revolution and was a personal family friend of William Barrett Travis. I've not found his link to us but I am still researching it. He is more than likely related to us. Thames is not a common name, nor is Amos.
On January 22, 1717, he purchased 30 acres of land and began to farm it. He had several children, some of whom became prominent in the area. After a generation or two, the Thames family began to move west, settling in Mississippi, again for a couple of generations and then some worked their way into Texas. There is an account of an Amos Thames who fought in the Texas Revolution and was a personal family friend of William Barrett Travis. I've not found his link to us but I am still researching it. He is more than likely related to us. Thames is not a common name, nor is Amos.
There are very few families in England that retained the river spelling of Thames (Tims), which can be traced back to the Roman occupation of what is now Great Britian. In England the family surname is almost always spelled Tims or Timms.
As the Thames family moved west, they may have tired of trying to correct the pronunciation, which they were still calling itTims. They probably threw up their hands and adopted the phoenetic pronunciation of Thames, pronouncing the Th and adopting the long vowel a. It has been that way for four or five generations. So, when you find a Tims, say Howdy Cuz. Submitted by Richard L. Porter
