Thomas French, Jr. (1732-1813) was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, the eighth child born to Thomas French and Joanna Field. He may have lived briefly in the neighboring town of Sunderland where he married Miriam Billings in 1752 before returning to Deerfield where he settled in the district that was incorporated as the town of Conway in 1767. By 1772, he had a tavern in Bloody Brook, in what is now South Deerfield. Thomas fought in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Most, if not all of his eight children were probably born in Conway. Thomas owned a large amount of land and ran a well-known tavern where he hosted Conway's first town meeting. Later town histories remembered "Landlord French" as "a great man in those days and his house a place of popular resort. He was also a great landowner and it was his boast that he could walk to Deerfield without stepping off his own broad acres." (Charles Stanley Pease, History of Conway (Massachusetts) 1767-1917, 1917, p. 109.) A Centennial address was less complimentary, describing how Thomas French "fell into idleness, cheated the Continental government in salt, took to the lawyers, forged, sat in the pillory and died a vagabond." By 1772, he had a tavern in Bloody Brook, in what is now South Deerfield. Thomas fought in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Most, if not all of his eight children were probably born in Deerfield (later Conway.)
In John Williams' daybook is a 1774 entry that refers to Thomas Jr.'s "boy". This could be one of his sons, or an enslaved boy, or a White servant.
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