Thomas Hart was born in Hanover County, Virginia in about 1730. A planter in Orange County, Hart served as the local county sheriff from 1765 to 1771. Hart was unpopular with the Regulators as he frequently served crown warrants against them. Prior to the Battle of Alamance, he and Governor William Tryon’s aide de camp, John Malcolm, delivered a letter to the Regulators ordering them to lay down their arms and surrender. Following the War of Regulation, Hart joined the Patriot cause, serving at the North Carolina Provincial Congress and as a colonel for the Sixth North Carolina Regiment. After the revolution, Hart moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where he died on 23 June 1808.