Thomas Christian, named in the Chickahominy patent in Virginia in 1657, of the Manx Christian connection that settled in the colony.

The family's Manx origin is on record. In 1655 two brothers, William and Jonathan Christian of Maughold, went out to Virginia, and a family of Cottiers from Lezayre went at the same time, the two afterwards intermarrying. The Christians acquired considerable tracts of land there, and their descendants came to be possessed of an ample fortune. A patent of 1657 falls within that first decade of the family's settlement.