Updated on October 16, 2025 by Ruth
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What would make a farmer leave his family and his land?
Thomas Webster, born in 1746 in Brandywine Hundred, Delaware, lived in an era of upheaval. By the time he was farming his own land in the 1760s, the colonies were reeling from British taxes, restrictions, and violence. Each new act of Parliament — the Stamp Act, the Townshend Act, and the Boston Massacre — reminded colonists that they lived under the thumb of a distant king who neither saw nor cared for them.
When Thomas married Margaret Clark in 1770, the talk of rebellion was everywhere. By 1773, the Boston Tea Party made clear that words would not be enough. When the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in 1775, and when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, the colonists finally put into words what had been building for years: no king has the right to rule over free people.
The Declaration of Independence charged King George III with refusing fair laws, dissolving elected assemblies, imposing taxes without consent, maintaining armies among civilians, and denying the right to trial by jury. In short, it accused him of tyranny — the concentration of power in one man’s hands. The founders saw that tyranny as incompatible with liberty.
And yet, nearly 250 years later, echoes of those old grievances can still be heard. Concentrated power. Attacks on the rule of law. Challenges to the independence of judges. Military force used to intimidate citizens. These are not the acts of a democracy — they are the shadows of kingship.
When Thomas Webster left his farm and young family to fight for the Continental Army, he did not do so for wealth or recognition. He did it to say no to kings. No to authoritarianism. No to the belief that one person’s will should outweigh the rights of all. He fought for yes — yes to liberty, yes to law, yes to equality, yes to the promise that every voice matters.
Thomas and his fellow patriots didn’t yet know what freedom would look like in practice. They couldn’t have imagined all the struggles that would follow — but they trusted each other enough to try. As they wrote in the final lines of the Declaration, “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
That trust built a nation — a republic where no man wears a crown, and no leader stands above the law. George Washington himself could have been king, but he refused. His choice set the standard for every generation after him: the measure of American greatness is not how much power one person can hold, but how faithfully that power is shared among the people.
Thomas Webster came home after the war to his farm in Brandywine Hundred. Whether he was paid or not, he had kept something far more valuable — his belief in a country where no king would ever again command his life.
Today, that belief is still worth defending.
A personal note:
Thomas and Margaret Webster were my 4x great-grandparents. Thomas would not have been able to fight if Margaret had not supported him in every way. She managed the farm and family (4 children!) while he was gone. She made it possible for him to return to the farm and continue his normal work. Their devotion to this new country as well as to family and land is an ideal that has been passed down to the current generation. We still say no to authoritarianism and yes to voting rights. We know that our understanding of those ideals set out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution continue to evolve as we, all of society, learn more. And we continue to grow on the family farm.
Resources
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/americanrevolution/timeline.htm
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
