Thomas Lygon

Colonel Thomas Lygon III (also spelled Ligon, Liggon and Liggin; 11 January 1623 – 16 March 1675) was a Colonial Virginian statesman, militia officer, and landowner. Born into a genteel family in England, Lygon emigrated to the Virginia Colony in the early 1640s. He served in the House of Burgesses, representing Henrico County, and was a justice of the peace for Charles City County. Lygon owned large parcels of land along the Appomattox River, and worked as a surveyor until his death in 1675. He was the patriarch of the American branch of the Lygon family. Early life and family Lygon was born in Warwickshire, England on 11 January 1623 to Sir Thomas Framer Lygon II of Madresfield Court and Elizabeth Pratt. He was baptized in the Church of England in Walsgrave on Sowe. Lygon was a member of an aristocratic family that were part of the landed gentry. He was a cousin of Sir William Berkeley and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. The home of Lygon's grandparents, Thomas Lygon of Elkstone and Frances Dennis, was searched by priest hunters in 1581 and, in 1592, his grandmother was fined as a recusant for refusing to attend Anglican services. He was a great-great-grandson of Sir William Denys, who served as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire and as Esquire of the Body to Henry VIII, and Anne de Berkeley of Berkeley Castle. Life in the colonies Following his cousin, Sir William Berkely, who was appointed by Charles I as the Royal Governor of Virginia, Lygon emigrated to the Virginia Colony in the early 1640s, at the age of sixteen, arriving in Jamestown in 1641. On 18 April 1644, while Lygon was living at the home of John and Sarah Woodson, their settlement was attacked by Native Americans. During the battle, Lygon shot and killed seven people. The gun he used is now owned by the Virginia Historical Society.