Thomas W. Sutherland

Thomas W. Sutherland (c. 1817 – February 2, 1859) was an American lawyer and pioneer settler of Wisconsin and California. He was the first village president of Madison, Wisconsin, was United States attorney for Wisconsin for several years in the 1840s, was a member of the first Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin, and was the last alcalde (mayor) of San Diego, California, prior to statehood.

He was the eldest son of Joel Barlow Sutherland of Philadelphia, who had been a militia officer in the War of 1812 and served as a Member of Congress when Thomas was a child. He settled in San Diego, where, in 1850, he served as the final Alcalde (Mayor) of San Diego prior to California becoming a state. That year, on May 5, he and his wife welcomed a son, Thomas, who is claimed to be the first "white" child born in the territory. He then became District Attorney for San Diego County in 1851. They moved to San Francisco in 1852, where Sutherland continued his law practice. He died on February 2, 1859, in Sacramento, California, and was buried at Lone Mountain Cemetery in San Francisco.