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SAUL, THOMAS STOVIN (1795-ca. 1840). Thomas Stovin Saul, farmer and attorney, came to Texas from Louisiana and took the oath of allegiance to the Mexican government on December 28, 1829. At that time he was thirty-four years old and had a wife, Malissa, aged twenty-three, and a daughter. Although classified on his certificate of character as a farmer, he advertised on October 27, 1830, that the following December he would establish a school in Stephen F. Austin's^qv colony at the upper settlement on the Brazos River. On March 29, 1831, he was granted twenty-four labors of land on the west bank of the Brazos River south of Yegua Creek in what is now northeastern Washington County. Saul was the delegate from what is now Grimes County to the Convention of 1833.^qv He served as secretary at the election of officers of the new Municipality of Washington on July 18, 1835. On September 29, 1835, he joined the Revolutionary Army^qv at Gonzales and on October 8 was elected orderly sergeant for the Washington company. He served under James G. Swisher^qv at the siege of Bexar^qv and was honorably discharged on December 23, 1835. Saul was elected engrossing clerk of the Convention of 1836.^qv On October 16, 1837, he advertised as an attorney at Washington-on-the-Brazos. He was appointed administrator of David Crockett's^qv estate and appeared before the land board to urge Crockett's military claims on February 6, 1838. Saul was not listed in muster rolls and did not receive any donation or bounty lands. He died before January 21, 1840, on which date President Mirabeau B. Lamar^qv approved an act of Congress for the relief of his heirs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Louis Wiltz Kemp, The Signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence (Salado, Texas: Anson Jones, 1944; rpt. 1959). Virginia H. Taylor, The Spanish Archives of the General Land Office of Texas (Austin: Lone Star, 1955). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832-1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941). Villamae Williams, Stephen F. Austin's Register of Families (Nacogdoches, Texas: Ericson, 1984).

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/fsa36.html (accessed December 4, 2008).

(NOTE: "s.v." stands for sub verbo, "under the word.")

The Handbook of Texas Online is a project of the Texas State Historical Association (http://www.tshaonline.org).

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Last Updated: January 18, 2008
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