Anti-slavery activist and devoted Hicksite Quaker Thomas M’Clintock was born in Brandywine Hundred, Delaware in 1792. The names of Thomas’s parents were Thomas and Mary Allen M’Clintock. Thomas's father was a Presbyterian and his mother a Quaker although their marriage resulted in her being removed from the Quaker rolls for marrying out of meeting.
Thomas became a druggist or pharmacist which, at the time would have been achieved through an apprenticeship. Thomas became a Quaker by commitment in 1811. At the age of twenty-two Thomas began working as a druggist, opening his own store in Philadelphia, and six years later, in 1820, he married his wife Mary Ann Wilson M’Clintock in Burlington, New Jersey. They began their life together in Philadelphia, where they lived for the first seventeen years of their marriage, and where Thomas M’Clintock began his involvement in abolitionism. During their years in Philadelphia Thomas and Mary Ann had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood.
In 1827, Thomas M’Clintock co-founded the Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania along with James Mott, Richard Allen and others and became its first secretary. This predominantly Quaker movement, which also included free African Americans, was an effort to promote the exchange of goods not involving any slave labor. In doing such, the members hoped to create a demand for “free” produce. The Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania felt their agenda was a peaceful and reasonable way to combat slavery. Thomas applied those principles throughout his life.
That same year Thomas M’Clintock was an instrumental force in the Hicksite Schism. This separation among the Quakers resulted from disagreements on to what role doctrine should play in the church, how much one should participate in social activism and other factors. M’Clintock’s extensive knowledge of early Quaker theology was used to form debilitating arguments against Orthodox Quakers. His arguments caused so much tension that even ten years later, in 1836, he and his family choose to move to Waterloo, New York. While in New York, the M’Clintocks more actively aligned themselves with William Lloyd Garrison and his American Anti-Slavery Society. The M'Clintocks participated in petition campaigns, anti-slavery fairs, hosted numerous anti-slavery speakers and were founding members of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. In 1843, Thomas was elected to the board of managers of the American Anti-Slavery Society and later served as a vice president for a number of years.
Thomas M’Clintock actively championed abolition, temperance, and Native American rights. Thomas and his wife organized anti-slavery petitions, gave refuge to black children, and continued the Free Produce movement. Controversy erupted between moderate and radical members over whether the Society had the right to discipline members for individual acts. As a result, the M’Clintocks organized a new group called the Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends, which became official in 1853 after the schism of the Society of Friends in 1848. This new group, later renamed the Friends of Human Progress in 1854, had strong ties to the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends.
As Thomas’ wife, Mary Ann, was a major force in organizing the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls. Mary Ann attended the famous tea party in the Hunt where the idea for a convention was first discussed. The original Declaration of Sentiments was then written at the M'Clintock house by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary Ann and probably Elizabeth M'Clintock and Mary M'Clintock. Thomas may been involved in those discussions but there is no direct record of that. He did chair one of the sessions of the subsequent convention and gave a speech in support of the declaration. The entire M’Clintock family was involved in the convention, and they even helped to organize a follow-up convention later in August.
By 1860, at the age of sixty-eight, Thomas M’Clintock and family had moved back to Philadelphia. Thomas returned to his trade as a pharmacist until about 1866. He died on March 19, 1876 at the age of eighty-three. His wife died eight years later on May 21, 1884. Thomas M’Clintock is remembered for his contributions to the anti-slavery movement and his impact on the first women’s rights movements. The home the family resided in at Waterloo, New York during July 1848 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 as the M'Clintock House.[1]