Thomas Holme
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[[Image:1687ThoHolmeMap.jpg|Thumb|300 px|right|''A Mapp of Ye Improved Part of Pensilvania in America, Divided Into Countyes, Townships and Lotts....''" (published circa 1687)]]
'''Thomas Holme''' ([[1624]]-[[1695]]) was the first Surveyor General of [[Pennsylvania]].
He was born in [[Lancashire]], [[England]] on November 3, 1624, to a [[yeoman]] named George and his wife Alice. He married Sarah Croft in [[1649]], and soon enlisted in the army under the leadership of [[Oliver Cromwell]], where he attained the rank of [[captain]]. It may have been in the army that he gained some experience in surveying. After retiring he was granted more than 4,000 acres (16 km²) in [[Wexford]], [[Ireland]], which was under the control and colonization of the English at the time.
At some point he joined the [[Quaker]] movement in Ireland. There he met [[William Penn]], the founder and namesake of Pennsylvania, who was also a Quaker. In [[1682]], Penn wrote to Holme from [[United States of America|America]] asking him to come be his surveyor, since his original surveyor, Captain William Crispin, had recently become ill and died on the voyage to America. Shortly after, Holme sailed to America.
Holme designed the plan of the city of [[Philadelphia]] and produced the first detailed [[map]] of Pennsylvania, entitled "''A Mapp of Ye Improved Part of Pensilvania in America, Divided Into Countyes, Townships and Lotts....''" (published circa 1687). On Penn's arrival in the colony, he appointed Holme as one of his councillors.
He held his office of Surveyor-General until his death at the age of 71 in the spring of [[1695]], in [[Delaware Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania|Dublin Township]], [[Philadelphia County]] (now the [[Torresdale, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Torresdale]] section of the city of Philadelphia). In [[1863]], a memorial was erected at his burial site, in the form of a six-foot-tall [[marble]] [[obelisk]], near where his home is believed to have been located, now part of [[Pennypack Park]].
==External links==
* Biographical essay in Professional Surveyor Magazine:
:*[http://www.profsurv.com/archive.php?issue=50&article=711 part 1]
:*[http://www.profsurv.com/archive.php?issue=51&article=727 part 2]<br>
* [http://www.lowermerionhistory.org/atlas/1687.html Image of one of Holme's maps from the Lower Merion Historical Society]
* [http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/kjohnso1/tholmemap.htm "Portraiture of the City of Philadelphia" (1683), by Thomas Holme]
* [http://virtualology.com/apthomasholme/ Brief biography at virtualology.com]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holme, Thomas}}
[[Category:1624 births]]
[[Category:1695 deaths]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania colonial people]]
[[Category:American colonial people]]
[[Category:American Quakers]]
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