Thomas Luten Jr. was born in North Carolina in about 1690. A justice for the Chowan Precinct Court from 1717 to 1719 and again in the 1730s, Luten also worked as a carpenter. Luten also represented Chowan in the North Carolina Colonial Assembly in 1733, 1735, and 1739 and remained a justice of the peace for the remainder of his life. He died in Chowan in about 1766.