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Thomas L. Halsey was born in 1776, in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Thomas Lloyd Halsey, Sr. and Sarah Bowen. His father, a prominent and wealthy citizen of Providence, was French consular agent in Rhode Island during the Revolutionary War.
Halsey graduated at the College of Rhode Island (Brown University) in 1793.
Shortly afterward Halsey entered upon a commercial career, and sometime before 1807 arrived in Buenos Aires. After having been engaged in business there for several years, he was appointed United States consul by President Madison on June 18, 1812, and began to serve in that capacity on August 30, 1814.
During his consulate, Halsey busied himself profitably in supplying the army of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata with a large amount of arms and ammunition - 1, 600 guns, 450 barrels, and 25 cases of powder, as well as crystals and soldier's caps and other equipment which he imported from the United States. Much of this was used by San Martín in his campaigns of 1817 and 1818, which brought about the liberation of southern South America from Spanish rule. Halsey also, in company with Col. John Devereux, guaranteed a loan of 2, 000, 000 pesos to the Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, which is said to have prolonged the existence of that government, whose supreme director wrote to President Madison on January 31, 1817, expressing his gratitude for this loan.
A year later, however, Pueyrredón asked that Halsey be recalled because of his sympathetic relations with José Artigas, opponent of the administration. Meanwhile, the enterprising consul had become interested in privateers cruising against Spain, and, although the United States was at peace with that country, he sent a number of blank commissions to acquaintances in Baltimore, who filled them in to suit themselves and sent out ships to reap the easy profits of this respectably disguised piracy. For his connection with these activities in violation of the good faith of the United States, his commission as consul was revoked by Secretary John Quincy Adams on January 22, 1818, although he continued to serve until the arrival in Buenos Aires of W. G. D. Worthington, to whom he turned over the consulate in September 1819. The following year he visited the United States in an endeavor to persuade Adams to reappoint him, but without success.
For several years after Halsey ceased to be consul he continued in business in Buenos Aires. Halsey had a large estate outside the city, and imported a number of blooded sheep from the United States, being responsible for the introduction, in 1810, of the Merino breed into Argentina. His South American ventures seem to have been extremely profitable. When he returned to Providence in the thirties he was the possessor of a considerable fortune.
He was a trustee of Brown University from 1809 to 1839 and was prominent in Providence banking circles in his later years. Thomas L. Halsey died on February 2, 1855, after a dissipated old age, leaving an estate of a quarter of a million dollars, augmented shortly by the settlement of a claim of $100, 000 for arms and munitions furnished the Argentine government. To the discomfiture of his sisters and their children, this estate was left in trust for his daughter, Maria Louisa Andrea del Valle, born in Argentina, and at her death the major portion was to go to her eldest son. These provisions of his will gave rise to protracted litigation which was settled out of court in 1898.
Thomas Halsey was a man of luxurious habits; to indulge his taste for terrapin soup he kept a supply of live terrapins in the cellar of his house.
