Various experiences were obviously too much for the Applegates and they left the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640 and went to Rhode Island. There, Thomas appears to have engaged in several real estate endeavors and was identified as a weaver. Thomas was also involved in several Court suits. 5. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~applegate/ Characteristcally, the first data from Rhode Island is of Thomas in court (Chapin, H. M. 1916. Documentary History of Rhode Island. 2 Vols.). He filed suit against John Room(e) of Newport for use of a house on 01 December 1641. In a complicated set of suits, Thomas, Room(e), Nicolas Cotteral and William Heavens sued and countersued each other up to 03 December 1643 (Chapin, pp. 135, 138, 142, 150, 152). According to Rhode Island Colony Records (1:7), the land had been granted to William Heavens by the town council. Heavens, identified as a carpenter, mortgaged the property to Nicholas Cotteral and, with the money, built a house on the lot. Later, Cotteral foreclosed and sold the porperty and house to Thomas. He, in turn, attempted to sell it to George Cozzens. The property apparently is on what is now Aquidneck Avenue, Middletown (then part of Newport). Our next record of Thomas is also a court case (Rhode Island Colony Records, 1:135). A Jermey Gould filed against Thomas. Both are identified as being from Newport. Mr. Coggesdall was appointed as referee and both Thomas and Jermey were ordered to abide by his decision no later than the last day of April, 1642. Neither the cause of the dispute nor the resolution are listed. Edward Browce sold Thomas, identified as a weaver, a four-acre house lot between the lots of George Cleer and Thomas Roberts on 21 January 1643 (Rhode Island Colony Records, 2:3). The same records show that George Gardiner switched lots with Thomas Applegate. The lots are in the region of Newport's main post office - Thames Street at Memorial Boulevard. In the 1650's all these home lots were purchased by Benedict Arnold, the great-grandfather of the traitor. Their separate identities were lost at that time. On 20/21 March 1643, James Rogers sold three parcels of land to Thomas Applegate, weaver (Rhode Island Colony Records, 2:1): 1) Roger's house and lot; 2) a four-acre lot between the lots of Edward Andrews and Michaell Spence; 3) the western half of Roger's "30-acre great lot." On 06 May 1643, Edward Andrews sold to Robert Jefferies two four-acre lots (Rhode Island Colony Records, 2:4). The land north of the lots was described as being owned by Thomas Applegate, weaver. However, Thomas had sold that land to Jefferies nine months earlier. Thomas took time out from his real estate dealings (but not for long) to engage in another court case. On 07 June 1643, William Dyer of Newport filed suit against Thomas Applegate, weaver, of the same town for "detayning of goods to the damage of 40s the D:acknowledged wrong & was injoyned to aske forgiveness of the pl and his wife for wronging of them & so carry back the goods to the Pl. house" (Rhode Island Colony Records, 2:141). On the same page (and probably on or near the same date) Henry Bull filed suit against Thomas for trespass. Applegate was to "Satisfie" the claim by order of the court. A few months later, 20 August 1643, Thomas sold to Robert Jefferies two home lots of four acres each (Rhode Island Colony Records, 2:3). One lot was that sold Thomas on 21 January 1643 by Edward Browce. The other lot, location unknown, was given Thomas by the town. Thomas also held land to the south. It is now known as Price's Neck. By the original deed, William Dyre bought the neck from Thomas Applegate who obtained it by a town grant. On 20 December 1644, Dyre sold it to George Gardiner (Rhode Island Colony Records, 2:5). On 14 December 1652, Gardiner sold it to John Price (hence today's name). Appelgat's Plaine is mentioned in Rhode Island Land Evidence, 1:71. William Dyre was colony secretary and he was one of the men who originally laid out the roads, farms and lots. In 1654, he wrote: An other high-way from the Entrance of Mr. Coggesdalls farme to goe to castle hill and soe leadinge to all the Lands and Comons upon the neck wch way was layd out by us to the Brooke that came down by Apelgates Plaine the rest is not detirmined as yett where to runn - A highway from the Towne layd out of 2 poles wide to wi. Dyres farme and soe to lead to the lands on the north side of the Towne girt the meadows, mr. Coggingtons Cow-pasture the Artillery Garden mr. Clarkes land and Willia Dyres Land soe by mr. Dyres meadow a way into the land that the said Dyre bought of Apelgate to fetch off the wood of that land for the townes use which land was layd forth by Captn Clarke and mr. Robert Jefferays as alsoe byn them was the wood reserved and the way appointed only for that use.