Sir Thomas Lunsford (c. 1610 – c. 1653) was a Royalist colonel in the English Civil War who in 1649 was exiled to the Virginia Colony, where he held offices, acquired land and died.

On 27 June 1632, he was charged with killing deer on the grounds of his relative, Sir Thomas Pelham.

During the Scottish expedition the following year, Lunsford commanded a regiment raised from the Somerset Trained Bands.

His regiment fought at the Battle of Newburn on 28 August 1640, being routed after defending the crossing against Scottish cavalry and artillery.

[4] The king knighted Lunsford on 28 December and appointed him commander of an unofficial royal guard at the Palace of Whitehall.

On 4 January 1642, Sir Thomas accompanied the king on his ill-fated attempt to arrest Five Members of the House of Commons.

[2] On 13 January, Lunsford was arrested as a traitor for allegedly joining Lord Digby in a plot to capture the magazine at Kingston upon Thames.

[2] Captured at the Battle of Edgehill in October 1642, he was charged with treason and imprisoned in Warwick Castle, from which he was released in May 1644.

[6] Shortly after his arrival in the colony, Lunsford patented more than 3,400 acres bordering Portobago Bay on the Rappahannock River opposite to the Native American settlement called Nanzattico, which was home to the Portobago and Nanzattico Native Americans and that later became part of Caroline County.

Normally, such patents were based on the number of people (including himself) for whose emigration to Virginia the patentee had paid, and he was also required to improve and cultivate the land.

In 1670, Catherine married Peter Jennings, the colony's attorney general, and also claimed her late father's land on Portobago Bay.