But Francis wanted a military career, and at the age of seventeen, with no hope of his parents changing their minds, he instead left home for Rice Lake (Ontario), with the intention to seek his fortune farming.
It was said of him that "his hand is never closed when she (the Church of England) needs his help, though at the same time he does not refuse his aid to any meritorious object, because its promoters differ from him in creed."
The first Mrs Thomas (whose sister married a son of Bishop Benjamin Cronyn) helped her husband in his many philanthropic and beneficent efforts.
She became an elective governor of the Mackay Institute for the Deaf and Blind, the first directress of the Church Home, treasurer of the Ladies' Protestant Benevolent Society, and president of the Montreal School of Cookery founded by Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll.
By his second marriage, he was the father of three children, one of whom, Shearme, was the second wife of Lt.-Col. John Lionel Philips D.S.O., J.P., D.L., of Abbey Cwmhir Hall, where his widow died.