Thomas Spottswood Hinde (April 19, 1785 – February 9, 1846) was an American newspaper editor, opponent of slavery, author, historian, real estate investor, Methodist minister and a founder of the city of Mount Carmel, Illinois.

Historian Lyman Draper spent more than twenty years collecting documents by and about the Hinde family, along with papers of other important figures of the Trans-Allegheny West.

The Draper Manuscript Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society holds 47 volumes of Hinde's personal papers, donated by his family after his death.

[2] Little is known about Hinde's early years except that the family moved from Virginia to Newport, Kentucky, in 1797 when his father was awarded a land grant of 10,000 acres (40 km2) for his services in the American Revolutionary War.

[3] In a letter to President James Madison many years later, Hinde related that while walking to school in the wilderness of Kentucky, he once successfully fought off a wolf and a panther.

After a conversion by his mother Mary and older sister Susannah in 1798, all of Hinde's family, including his father, converted to Christianity as Methodists.

[8] Hinde recounted Bishop Asbury visiting his father's home in 1803 and telling Martha that she had better find God, because before he could meet her again she would be dead.

Hinde resided in a boarding house, shared with many of the leading judges and politicians of the day, where he strengthened his personal and political contacts.

Hinde's opposition increased and eventually he and other friends became outspoken critics of the institution in Kentucky, where slavery was commonplace in the middle and western parts of the state.

Imbibing strong prejudices against slavery, perhaps from my mother's repeating, in my infancy, the nurse's songs composed by Cowper, designed to make such impressions.

Connecting circumstances, and from hints that fell from Wood and others, a deep impression had been made on my mind, that an eventful period was fast approaching.

[22] Belinda married Jacob Zimmerman, a successful newspaper editor and owner who in later years held a number of political offices in Illinois.

An 1856 account states, In 1810 Bishop Asbury visited an obscure part of the western country (Kanawha) which was then a wilderness, and pleasantly told the Rev.

In a letter to President James Madison, he mentioned taking friends to Windship's mound (now the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park), but focused on his opposition to slavery, saying he called their attention to the surrounding scenery, my former pursuits, my friends, my country, my prospects—all these had been abandoned for the pride of opinion, against the entailment and perpetuation of slavery upon the rising generation!

[30] One source says that Hinde played a crucial role in negotiating early Indian treaties signed with the United States government, without defining his actions.

According to one source: The site chosen for the town was a point on the west bank of the Wabash opposite the mouth of the White River, and twenty-four miles southwest of Vincennes.

"[38] Another source notes that Hinde and other founders "...may have been over zealous and puritanical in the construction of their laws... no theater or play-house shall ever be built within the boundary of the city; no person shall be guilty of drunkenness, profanity, sabbath-breaking, and many other offenses of greater magnitude, etc., he shall be subject to trial by the court of Mayor and on conviction, was disqualified from holding any office in the city, or the bank; was disqualified to vote; ostracism was to continue for three years after the commission of the so-called crimes.

Several of his Ohio property disputes reached the Supreme Court of the United States, including Hinde v. Vattier[42] and Mallow v.

[48] In 1807 Vattier was convicted of burglary and larceny for stealing large sums of money from James Findlay, Receiver of Public Monies for the District of Cincinnati.

He cited in support the opinion of unnamed hunters and traders and George Washington's hope of connecting the waters of the east with the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

Not long after the death of Hinde, his son James and his son-in-law Charles H. Constable joined with Lescher and sued the company for entering their land and taking timber and other materials for the construction of dam.

The same report said that by March 31, 1881, expenditures for the dam were $317,845.44 and the government was forced to pay the Wabash Navigation Company an additional $7,000 to extinguish their franchise and purchase their property.

His writings have been described as, "...abound[ing] in vague philosophical and religious reflections-- this is especially true of his diaries-- thus making them of slight value...."[33] Hinde dedicated a substantial amount of time to investigating the Madoc Tradition in North America.

Madoc or Madog ab Owain Gwynedd was, according to folklore, a Welsh prince who sailed to America in 1170, more than 300 years before Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492.

He claimed to have testimony from numerous sources that said Welsh people under Owen Ap Zuinch had come to America in the twelfth century, over 300 years before Christopher Columbus.

Hinde claimed that in 1799, the remains of six soldiers had been dug up near Jeffersonville, Indiana with breastplates containing Welsh coats of arms.

In 1799, John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee, also wrote of the alleged discovery of six skeletons in brass armor bearing Welsh coat-of-arms.

Hinde claimed that M'Intosh recounted that American Indians and Welshmen living on the Mississippi River were conversing in Welsh in the late 1700s.

In an 1842 letter, Hinde stated, "I have just returned from the East, having visited the Atlantic cities generally for the first time, after forty-five years pioneering in the wilderness of the West.

"[14] Hinde is buried in Sandhill Cemetery in Mount Carmel next to his daughter Belinda and his second wife, Sarah Doughty Cavileer Neal.