Thomas Bullitt (1730 – February 1778) was a United States military officer, and surveyor from Prince William County, Virginia and pioneer on its western frontier.
His younger brother Cuthbert Bullitt studied to become an attorney, became a planter in Prince William County and represented it in the Virginia House of Delegates, mostly after this man's death.
The next year Captain Bullitt and his men again marched against Fort Duquesne, this time with the Braddock Expedition, and again failed, at the Battle of Monogahela on July 9, 1755.
The court decided unanimously 'that Captain Bullitt behaved like a good Officer, and did every Thing in his Power to repulse the Enemy, and save the Convoy.'"
During the war, Andrew Lewis and Thomas Bullitt had surveyed part of the area and had heard stories from the Native Americans and colonists about the healing powers of the springs.
[2] On December 3, 1772, Captain Bullitt advertised in Virginia Gazette that he had the intention to lead a surveying party into the Kanawha, Ohio River and Kentucky region for the purpose of identifying claims for veterans in the French and Indian War, which were promised to them by Lt. Gov.
Bullitt himself, a recently licensed surveyor, received permission from Lord Dunmore, John Murray, to lead the party was also authorized a substantial tract (1,240 acres due to his rank as a Captain).
[4] In April 1773, Bullitt gathered about 40 men which included Joshua Morris, and Hancock Taylor[5] which set out from the New River Settlements to the Kanawha and generally followed the along the south side of the Valley of the Ohio.
During the expedition, another smaller survey was being conducted a month earlier by a group of rangers and Walter Kelly, who departed in February 1773 and had already Tomahawked and begun improvements on many sought after lands.
When Governor Dunmore made his last stand in 1775, Captain Bullitt was a part of the forces that assembled for the Battle of Great Bridge, alongside fellow surveyor Ensign Joshua Morris.
By his will, he left 400 acres and an annual allowance for support to his illegitimate daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Brounaunt, or Bronaugh, and most of the balance of his estate to his brother, Judge Cuthbert Bullitt.