Thomas Gholson, Jr.

Thomas Gholson, Jr. (c. 1780 – July 4, 1816) was an American lawyer and politician. He represented Virginia from 1808 to 1816 in the United States House of Representatives from both Virginia's 18th congressional district and Virginia's 17th congressional district both now obsolete congressional districts. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1806 to 1809.

He was born in Orange County, Virginia in 1780, the son of Thomas Gholson and Jane Parry. He died on July 4, 1816, in Brunswick County, Virginia from the effects of a wound, received while serving several years previously as volunteer aide on the staff of General Peter Buell Porter, in the War of 1812, during the attack of the British on Washington, D.C..

Gholson pursued an academic course studying law. He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Brunswick County, Virginia. He served as member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1806 to 1809. Gholson was elected as a Republican to the Tenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Claiborne. He was reelected to the Eleventh and to the three succeeding Congresses (November 7, 1808 – July 4, 1816). He served as chairman of the Committee on Claims (Twelfth Congress).

He married Anne Yates the granddaughter of Rev. William Yates, the College of William & Mary's fifth president (1761–1764) and is the namesake for Yates Hall on the College's campus; and a descendant of William Randolph, a colonist and land owner who played an important role in the history and government of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He and his wife, Mary Isham, are referred to as the "Adam and Eve" of Virginia.

Thomas and Ann were the parents of the following children: William Yates Gholson of the Ohio Supreme Court, who married Martha Anne Jane Taylor; Cary Ann Gholson; and Thomas Gholson, III. After Thomas died in 1816, she married as her second husband, George Washington Freeman, the second Episcopal bishop of Arkansas and Provisional Bishop of Texas.

He was the uncle of James Herbert Gholson; a second cousin of Richard D. Gholson; and the uncle and father-in-law of Thomas Saunders Gholson.