Clifton

John Thomas (1697-1759) and his wife Elisabeth Snowden (1711-before 1763), one of the first white settlers of Sandy Spring, Maryland, built Clifton sometime around 1748. The house is an example of the Tidewater style, common in Maryland during this period. This area, however, was sparsely settled, and so the house was particularly grand. It features a double-pitched gambrel roof and more complex floor plan than many houses built in this area at the time.

Thomas, with fellow Quaker James Brooke (1704-1784), were sons-in-law of wealthy Quaker planter and iron master Richard Snowden (1688-1763), who ran Patuxent Iron Works. James was married to Deborah Snowden (1710-1758). In the 1740s, Snowden had sold a tract of land from his large parcel "Snowden's Manor" to Philip Thomas, John's father, who later sold it to John. Snowden also gave both sons-in-law large tracts of land, and over their lifetimes they became significant landowners in the region. They established plantations and tenant farms which remained in their family.

The Sandy Spring Meeting of Friends formed by 1753. The Thomas family built the Sandy Spring Friends Meeting House sometime between 1817 and 1819.

The Thomas family constructed four brick houses which still stand in the Sandy Spring area. Clifton, the oldest, is the only one in the Tidewater style; the others are Georgian or Federal style. The Brooke family houses, also in the Tidewater style, were built of timber and no longer extant.

John Thomas willed Clifton and its land to his great-nephew, William John Thomas. After his death in 1884, his son, another John Thomas, inherited the property; he was the first to call it Clifton. His son, also William John Thomas, owned the property into the middle of the twentieth century. He was the last of the Thomas family to live here. At the time of Clifton's National Register of Historic Places nomination in 1973, the Bullard family owned the property. Another family purchased the home from the Bullards in 2006 and it remains privately owned.

Lavoie, Catherine C. "Clifton", [Silver Spring, Maryland], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MD-01-031-0075.

Last accessed: August 29, 2020.

Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. Deed to 17107 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland. Deed Reference #/33483/ 00259. August 29, 2020. Search at https://sdat.dat.maryland.gov/RealProperty/Pages/default.aspx

Marshall, Mike. "Deborah Snowden," Early Colonial Settlers of Southern Maryland and Virginia's Northern Neck Counties. August 31, 2020. Accessed September 3, 2020. https://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I016021&tree=Tree1

Marshall, Mike. "Elisabeth Snowden," Early Colonial Settlers of Southern Maryland and Virginia's Northern Neck Counties. August 31, 2020. Accessed September 3, 2020. https://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I017277&tree=Tree1

Owens, Christopher, and Nancy A. Miller. Clifton, National Register of Historic Places Inventory -- Nomination Form. January 1973. Accessed August 29th 2020. https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/NR_PDFs/NR-225.pdf.