Thomas Child was born circa 1720 in Sudburry, England. Child served as attorney general of colonial North Carolina (1747-1752 & 1759-1761), legislator representing Chowan County (1760-1761), and proprietary agent to John Carteret, 2nd Earl of Granville (1749-1763). Child's exact place and date of death are unknown, but it is presumed he died in London in the early 1790s.