Thomas Watkins Ligon was born on May 1, 1810 on a farm in Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States. He was the son of Thomas D. Ligon and his wife, Martha, daughter of Thomas Watkins, a Revolutionary officer. His father died while young Thomas was still a boy and his mother was married again, to Jack Vaughan of Prince Edward County, by whom she had six children.
Thomas was educated at Hampden-Sydney College (where he graduated in 1830), at the University of Virginia, and at the Yale Law School (1831 - 1832).
Ligon passed the examination for the bar in his native state but felt obliged to turn elsewhere for an opportunity to practise law. His choice fell on Baltimore, whither he repaired in 1833. In 1840 he established his residence permanently near Ellicott City, although he maintained his office in Baltimore. Immediately after his arrival in Baltimore he entered heartily into politics, vigorously sustaining the Jacksonian policies. In 1843 he became the Democratic candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates and was elected. The following year he was a successful candidate for Congress, where he served two terms (1845 - 1849), being invariably arrayed with the strict constructionists.
Winning the Democratic nomination for governor of Maryland in 1853, he was elected by a small majority. On January 13, 1858, following the election of his 'Know-Nothing' successor Thomas Holliday Hicks, Ligon retired to his Howard County. He spent the remainder of his long life quietly at his beautiful residence, "Chatham, " where he died at the age of seventy. He was buried in the old family plot near his dwelling with the unostentatiousness which marked his entire life though his body has since been removed to St. John's Cemetery, Ellicott City.
During his entire administration as a governor, Ligon was involved in a bitter struggle with the Know-Nothing party, which dominated both houses of the Assembly. During this period the Baltimore elections were characterized by open street fights around the markets and Monument square: awls became weapons and policemen remained mere spectators of violence. Although Governor Ligon undoubtedly realized how bitterly his antagonists would defend themselves, he opened an attack in his annual message of 1856 on "the formation and encouragement of secret political societies". Fire drew fire: a special committee on the message produced a partisan report which was largely an attack on the governor for his "ill-timed and undeserved discourtesy". Ligon's determination to interpose the militia to preserve order in Baltimore during the election of 1857 brought him to the verge of an open conflict with the mayor. The Governor yielded when a citizens' committee secured precautionary measures from the mayor, but he showed battle to the end by boldly devoting eleven pages of his last annual message to a discussion of "lawlessness in Baltimore. " By giving his address to the newspapers before presenting it to the Assembly he further antagonized that august body, which at first refused to accept his communication. Kindly and courteous, but reserved and simple, Ligon failed to awaken the personal enthusiasm which rallies followers in a battle, but his struggle encouraged a reform movement which bore fruit within less than three years.
In 1840 he married Sallie Dorsey. After the death of his first wife he married her sister, Mary.
