Colonel Thomas Hart was the son of Thomas hart and Susanna Rice Hart and the brother to John, Benjamin, David, Nathaniel and Ann.

"The mother of Lucretia Hart was Susanna, daughter of John Gray, Colonel in the Royal Army. Tradition says he opposed his daughter's marriage on the grounds that Thomas Hart, her intended, was a rebel. He was, indeed, a bold and active rebel, a member of two Provincial Congresses of North America, a Colonel in the Revolutionary Army, and one of the principals of that daring and romantic enterprise, the Transylvania Land Company. In spite of her father's disapproval the wedding of Susanna Gray and Thomas Hart, parents of Lucretia Hart, went off as planned." (Simpson, Letters to)

In 1780 Thomas Hart moved from North Carolina to Hagerstown, Maryland, where his two older daughters, Eliza and Susan, were married and where Lucretia was born.

"In the spring of 1794 Thomas Hart wrote to Governor Blount of Tennessee, who had married his wife's niece, 'You will be surprised to hear I am going to Kentucky. Mrs. Hart, who for eighteen years has opposed this measure, has now given her consent and so we go, an old fellow of 63 years of age seeking a new country to make a fortune in...

Another letter, written by Thomas Hart, dated Lexington, Kentucky 1795 says, 'Oh, if my old friend Uncle Jacob Blount were here! What a pleasure we would have in raking up money and spending it with our friends -This is really one of the finest countries in the world -The society is equal to that of any interior town in the United States'. He did, indeed prosper." (Simpson, Letters to)

"The fact that at a time when sailing vessels and clipper ships ruled the seas, Colonel Hart supplied all the rope used by the navy, proving that his cordage business was both extensive and successful. He rapidly laid the foundation of an immense fortune, comparable to the Vanderbilt wealth in New York". (Schwartz)