This is a possible father of James and Henry.
Thomas Leonard was a forgeman or fyner (one in charge of a hearth where cast iron was made malleable) and apparently worked at ironworks in Cleobury-Mortimer, a small village on the Rea River about half way between Kidderminster and Ludlow, at Publow/Pensford in the NE corner of Somersetshire about 6 miles from Bristol, and at Bilston, Staffordshire, near Birmingham. The Leonards apparently had a claim to the ironworks in Bilston (William R. Deane, "Genealogical Memoir of the Leonard Family," (NEHGS, 1851) 5:404).
Bill Barton gives Thomas' date of birth as about 1585 and death about 1658, with marriage to Elizabeth White and 11 children. I'm not sure the Thomas Leonard born in Kent and this Thomas Leonard are the same, although Barton's is probably the ancestor in this line. George Marston Leonard's charts have Thomas Leonard baptized May 23, 1577, dying 1638, and marrying Lydia White. This line of descendancy is also found frequently in ancestry.com lineages that go back to the Sampson Leonard/Fiennes line. Which is right?
Thomas probably ended up in the Pontypool area, perhaps working for the Hanbury family who owned the ironworks there and at Bilston.
There are two articles by Stanley G. Leonard published before 1977 in the Pontypool Free Press: "Local Links with Early United States Iron Industry" and "The Early Iron Men of America." But I've neither seen the articles nor found anyone who has read them. I have also been to the Welsh central records facility near Pontypool and read through many past issues of the Pontypool Free Press without finding the articles in question.
There is a will of Thomas Leonard, yeoman, of Trevethin, 2 miles north of Pontypool, proven February 28, 1658. The inventory was signed by Morgan Leonard. None of the 11 children of Thomas are listed in this will, so it is probably not "our" Thomas.
The genealogy of the first three generations of descendants from Thomas Leonard is based on a statement by Hannah Leonard Dean, granddaughter of Thomas, to her grandnephew, Zephaniah Leonard, in 1732.
See Alice A. Everett, "Leonards of Monmouthshire and Somersetshire, England" (TAG, 1977): 53:103 for information about the Leonard children born in Publow/Pensford, Somersetshire.
A James Leonard is mentioned in notes and queries, Somersetshire and Devonshire, Vol 19, page 89: "seats in Cattistock Church, 1632 2 years before the death of Rev. John Mayo wrote: a seat on the west side (church) I have made to John Tizzer and James Leonard now of Merifield, Parish of Cattistock. Said James has paid 6 shillings for his sister." GML wondered whether it was James, son of Thomas, but I wonder if it could be a James, brother of Thomas and son of Henry. James, son of Thomas, would have been only 12 in 1632.
Fanny Leonard Koster's origins of Thomas as a descendant of the D'Acre/Fiennes Lennards have been proven wrong many times. Also, there are lots of other Leonards around England in the 1500's/1600's. Hasted's History of Kent, Vol. III, (1858) pp 211-213 -- Fanny Leonard says the earliest record of a Leonard she found was John Lennard, 1509-March 12, 1591, m. Elizabeth Harmon.
Rev. Dr. Fobes in his account of the Leonard family in Mass. Hist. Coll. vol III states that James Leonard had "three brothers;" but in his genealogical tree of said family he gives but two, viz. Henry and Philip. (quoted in NEHGS Register, 1851, p. 414(3). There were several more, left in England.
Lois Badger, "The Leonard Dictionary," mentions that a Nathaniel Leonard was a brother of James and Thomas, was first in Avalon, Nova Scotia, later migrated to Maryland. He was killed in an ironworks in Wales. His son John was in Springfield in 1639. His father had a sister, Dorothy, who married George Calvert, Lord Baltimore." This is from the Hudson River and Mohawk Valley History, Vol. 2, and was quoted in the Boston Transcript of 17 Mar 1915. It's probably wrong.
We postulate that the Leonards started moving from thesoutheast of England, primarily Sussex, to the west of England, primarily theBlack Country, about 1580 to 1600 or thereabouts. Queen Elizabeth’s government startedencouraging the iron furnaces to move to the west of England in the 1550’sbecause of their demands for wood for charcoal. “The forests of England in the ironmaking districts had largely beenconsumed by the ‘voragious’ iron works , and there were loud complaints thatthe whole community would be unable to obtain fuel for domestic purposes ifthis denudation were persisted in. Inresponse to these complaints, an act was passed in 1558, the first year of thereign of Elizabeth, which prohibited the cutting of timber in certain parts ofthe country for conversion into coal or fuel ‘for the making of iron,’ special exceptions being made for the wealdof Kent, the county of Sussex, and certain parishes ‘high in the wealt of thecounty of Surrey.”[1] “A more sweeping act was passed in 1584, whichprohibited the erection of any new iron works in Surrey, Kent, and Sussex.”[2]
[1] Swank,p. 50.
[2] Swank,p. 50-51. Thomas Leonard had person sources.
2