Thomas Groom was a son of William and Margaret Groom of Southampton, Bucks County, where William owned a saw mill and grist mill. Thomas was born about 1720. His father William died in 1732, when Thomas was still a boy, and his grandfather Thomas Groom, for whom he was probably named, died four years later. In his will the grandfather left £20 to each of his grandsons, Thomas and William, and the carpenter’s tools “at their mother’s house”.1 Thomas and his brother William were taught to be coopers, barrel-makers.2

In the spring of 1750 Thomas was of age to marry and he did something unusual. He married a young woman from New Castle County, Delaware, over sixty miles south of Southampton. Her name was Lydia Goforth and she was the daughter of John and Lydia of Red Lion Hundred, New Castle County.3 The Groom family had no known connections to New Castle, but members of the Goforth family make occasional appearances in Bucks County records. In particular when John Goforth was accused in Bucks County Court in 1747 of getting Rebecca Kelly pregnant, William Groom was one of his sureties.4 John Goforth may have been Lydia’s brother.5 Since Lydia’s father John owned a saw mill, perhaps her brother was in Bucks County to learn the miller’s trade. (He inherited his father’s mill in 1750 when the older John died.) Both families were originally Quaker, but had fallen away from the society in the previous generation.6

The same year that Thomas married Lydia, he had some financial difficulties. He and his brother William owned jointly two tracts in Southampton, one of 50 acres and one of 62 acres, land they had inherited from their father. In September they mortgaged the 62-acre part to Paul Isaac Voto of Philadelphia. They repaid this the following year. In 1760 William died, leaving a widow Rachel and five children.7 This set off a prolonged legal process of dividing the land, a process that left Thomas with sole ownership. Thomas petitioned the Orphans Court in March 1761 to have the land valued, with its grist mill and saw mill.8 The sheriff’s jury valued the land at £800, with the obligation of paying the yearly interest on £150 to the widow Margaret, Thomas’ mother, as long as she lived, as her dower or widow’s thirds as it was called. Thomas wanted full ownership, so in March 1762 he paid £300 to Rachel and her new husband Edmund Briggs to buy out their share.9 To pay for this Thomas and Lydia mortgaged the land, and paid off the mortgage the following year.

There was no love lost between Thomas and Edmund. In 1763 Thomas complained to the court that Rachel and Edmund had gotten William’s estate into their hands, had moved to Maryland, and had left a property of William’s in Philadelphia County “much injured”.10 The court appointed Samuel Biles as a guardian for the property rights of William’s children.11 When Biles presented his account to the court, it was decided that Rachel had already taken more than her share of the estate, and the residue should be shared among his three living children.12

By 1772 Thomas and Lydia were in financial difficulties. They mortgaged the 62-acre tract and they did not repay it.13 This was the beginning of a fourteen-year period when Thomas was constantly in the courts, unable to pay his debts, with many judgments against him.14 The sheriff advertised the land for sale in the Pennsylvania Gazette from 1786 through 1788.15 Finally, to repay the mortgage, the sheriff sold the 62 acres with its mills to Henry Walmsley of Southampton.16 The remaining 50 acres was sold to Thomas’ son Thomas.17 For perhaps the final indignity Thomas and Lydia rented a house from their son Thomas, paying 10s a year rent. The lease, on 8 March 1791, was their last appearance in the records.18

Children of Thomas and Lydia:19

Thomas, b. about 1750. Married a woman named Rebecca.20 Stayed in Southampton. In 1788 he bought from the sheriff the 50-acre tract of his father. There in 1791 when he leased a house to his parents. In 1794 he sold the land to Garrett Vansant.21 Somehow Thomas retained or repurchased part of the land, since in 1823 Thomas (then of Byberry) and Rebecca his wife sold six acres of the land to Evan Groom, son of Thomas’ brother John.22 Probably the Thomas Groom in the 1810 census in Southampton, with eight people in his household, plus two free Black people.23

John, b. 1750, lived in Southampton through 1779, where he was a constable.24 married ab. 1779 his cousin Phebe Cooper, dau. of Thomas and Phebe.25 Phebe was disowned by Buckingham Monthly Meeting for marrying “with the assistance of a hireling minister” and for marrying a non-Friend.26 They moved to Upper Makefield by 1798,  and bought a lot there from John Beaumont.27 John died in 1810 in Upper Makefield.28 Four children are listed in the Orphans Court record for his estate, but five in the will of Phebe’s father Thomas Cooper in 1805. Children: Thomas, Phebe, Mary, John, probably Evan.29

William, moved to Upper Makefield, possibly d. 1836.30 He is said to have married Hannah Atkinson31. Children: Mary, William, John, Jonathan.32 William did not leave a will in Bucks County and there is no listing for his estate in the Bucks County Orphan’s Court records.33