It is certain that it was he who presented the
"Presidential barge" to Washington for his use during his stay in New
York, and he who selected that unusual crew,--practically every noted
shipmaster then in port. On the President's final departure for Mount
Vernon, he again used the barge, putting out from the foot of
Whitehall and when he reached Elizabethtown, he very courteously
returned it as a gift to Captain Randall, and wrote him a letter of
warm thanks.
It is believed that Captain Thomas came from Scotland some time in the
early part of the eighteenth century, but we know nothing of his
antecedents and not much of his private life. He married in America,
but we do not know the name of his wife. We do know that in 1775 his
son, Robert Richard, was a youth of nineteen and a student at
Columbia. This was the same year that the old Captain was serving on
important committees and playing a conspicuous part in public affairs.
Oh, yes! he was a most eminent citizen, and no one thought a whit the
worse of him for what he called his "honest privateering.
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