General Thomas Sprigg

"T. Sprigg" Sealed Wine Bottle

General Thomas Sprigg was born in 1747 to Osborne Sprigg and Rachel Belt Sprigg of Prince George's County, Maryland. The family is descended from Colonel Thomas Sprigg who immigrated to Maryland around 1660 where he secured a patent for his 1,000 acre Prince George's County estate, Northampton. The
estate remained in the Sprigg family until the mid 19th century; however, General Thomas Sprigg was never
its owner.

During the Revolutionary War, Sprigg served as an ensign in the Maryland Battalion of the Flying Camp, a mobile reserve of troops which augmented the Main Army forces until it was disbanded in December of 1776. Sprigg was then appointed the first register of wills in Washington County, retaining the position until 1780. In 1777 he was also chosen as a member of the County Committee of Observation, a group of Patriots in the community which organized and governed in place of the royal officials.

In 1788 Thomas Sprigg was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates. That year he also served as a member of the Maryland Convention which ratified the Constitution. Interestingly, his brother Osborn Sprigg also served as a member of the Convention. In the years following the Revolution, Thomas Sprigg's other duties included being a member of the levy court and a justice of the peace. In 1792 Sprigg was elected to Congress by "unanimous voice of the county" according to the Washington Spy and was re-elected in 1796. Sprigg continued to serve in the militia eventually rising to the rank of brigadier general, a position which he held until his death in 1809.

This bottle was offered in our Premier Auction 133, March 7-16, 2016.