Threlkeld, John, 1757-1830

John Threlkeld was born on October 26, 1757, in Georgetown, District of Columbia, to Henry Threlkeld and Mary Brown Hopkins. He married Elizabeth Ridgely on March 10, 1787, and together they had at least five children. He was a prominent landowner and farmer and had agricultural exchanges with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, with whom he was close friends. He was one of the founders of the Columbian Agricultural Society for the Promotion of Rural and Domestic Economy in 1809. He owned at least fifty enslaved people, most of whom were inherited. He is known to have manumitted some of them during his lifetime. He served one term as Mayor of Georgetown in 1793 but was active in politics all his life. He died on August 30, 1830, and is buried at Presbyterian Burying Ground in Georgetown, Washington D.C.