Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/128

104 law-school in 1840, and practised in Boston, Mass. He was a founder of the New England historic- genealogical society, and has been vice-president of the American statistic association and of the Prince {mblication society. He is the author of " Genea- ogical Memoir of the Gilbert Family in both Old and New England " (printed privately, Boston, 1850) ; " Lives of Isaac Heath and John Bowles, and of Rev. John Eliot, Jr." (printed privately, Roxbury, 1850) ; " Mementoes of the Swett Family " (printed privately, 1851) ; " The Landing at Cape Anne, or the Charter of the First Permanent Colony on the Territory of the Massachusetts Company, now Discovered and first Published from the Origi- nal Manuscript, with an Inquiry into its Authority, and a History of the Colony, 1624-1628 " (Boston, 1854) ; " Ancient Pemaquid : an Historical Review " (printed privately, Portland, 1857) ; " Peter Oliver's ' Puritan Commonwealth ' Reviewed " (Boston, 1857) ; " The First Records of Anglo-American Colonization: their History" (printed privately, Boston, 1859) ; " The Pulpit of the American Revo- lution, or the Political Sermons of the Period of 1776, with an Historical Introduction, Notes, and Illustrations " (Boston, 1860) ; " Colonial Schemes of Popham and Gorges," being a speech at the Popham celebration (Boston, 1863); and "The His- torical Relation of New England to the English Commonwealth " (printed privately, Boston, 1874).

THORNTON, James Shepard, naval officer, b. in Merrimack, N. H., 25 Feb., 1826 ; d. in German- town, Pa., 14 May, 1875. He entered the navy as a midshipman, 15 Jan., 1841, served in the sloop " John Adams " in the Gulf squadron during the Mexican war, and became a passed midshipman, 10 Aug., 1846. He resigned from the navy, 9 May, 1850, but was reinstated in 1854, promoted to master, 14 Sept., 1855, and to lieutenant the next day. During the civil war he served in the brig " Bainbridge " on the Atlantic coast in 1861, was executive officer of the flag-ship " Hartford " at the passage of the forts and batteries below New Or- leans, and in the engagement with the Confederate fleet, with the ram " Arkansas " and the batteries at Vicksburg, during which he served with great credit. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862, and had charge of the steam gun- boat " Winona " in engagements at Mobile, where he made a reconnaissance of Fort Gaines in sound- ing approaches under fire, and destroyed several Confederate steamers. He was the executive officer of the " Kearsarge " in the fight with the " Alabama," off Cherbourg, and was given a vote of thanks, and advanced thirty numbers in his grade for his gallantry in this victory. He served at the navy-yard at Portsmouth, N. H., in 1866-'7, was promoted to commander, 25 July, 1866, and commissioned captain, 24 May, 1872.

THORNTON, Matthew, signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, b. in Ireland about 1714; d. in Newburyport, Mass., 24 June, 1803. When he was two or three years old his father, James, emi- grated to New England, residing for a few years at Wiscasset, Me., and afterward at Worcester, Mass., where the son received a classical education. He studied medicine in Leicester, practised in Londonderry, N. H., and soon became wealthy. He accompanied the New Hampshire troops in the ex- pedition against Louisburg in the capacity of sur- geon. He was appointed a justice of the peace, and before the Revolution was a colonel. Taking an active part in the overthrow of the royal govern- ment in New Hampshire, Dr. Thornton was chosen president of the Provincial convention when it as- sembled in 1775. He was chief justice of the court of common pleas, and from 1776 till 1782 a judge of the superior court of New Hampshire. He was elected speaker of the assembly on 5 Jan., 1776, and on 12 Sept. the legislature chose him as a delegate to the Continental con- gress. As in the case of the dele- gates from Penn- sylvania, he was allowed to affix his name to the engrossed copy of the Declara- tion of Indepen- dence, although he was elected after its passage, and did not take his seat till 4 Nov., 1776. In December he was again chosen to represent New Hampshire in congress for another year. He re- moved to Exeter in 1779, and shortly afterward settled on a farm at Merrimack, relinquishing medical practice. He was elected a member of the general court, then a state senator, and in 1785 was appointed a member of the council. From the adoption of the state constitution till his death he was a justice of the peace. He wrote political articles for the newspapers, even after the age of eighty, and in his last days composed a meta- physical work on the origin of sin, which was never published. In 1887 the legislature of New Hampshire voted $1,000 for a monument to be placed over his grave in Merrimack.

THORNTON, Seth Barton, soldier, b. near Fredericksburg, Va., in 1814 ; d. in San Augustin, Mexico, 18 June, 1847. He was educated at the common schools, was of an active and adventurous nature, and after a narrow escape from death by shipwreck was appointed in June, 1836, 2d lieu- tenant in the 2d U. S. dragoons, serving with credit in Florida against the Seminoles, becoming 1st lieu- tenant in 1837 and captain in 1841. In command of his squadron he exchanged the first shots with the enemy in the Mexican war at La Rosia, 25 April, 1846, and was severely wounded and cap- tured with the greater part of his force after a gal- lant resistance by 40 dragoons against 500 lancers. At the close of Gen. Winfield Scott's campaign, while at the head of his squadron in advance of Worth's division at the village of San Augustin, near the city of Mexico, Thornton was struck in the breast by a round shot and instantly killed.

THORNTON, Thomas C., clergyman, b. in Dumfries, Va., 12 Oct., 1794; d. in Mississippi, 23 March, 1860. He was educated in his native place, became an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal church at the age of sixteen, and was received into the Baltimore conference three years later. In 1841 he was appointed president of a college in Mississippi. He left the Methodist church in 1845, and attached himself to the Protestant Episcopal church, but returned to his former connection in 1850, and in 1853 was readmitted to the Mississippi conference. He was the author of "Inquiry into the History of Slavery in the United States" (Washington, 1841), in which he replied to the anti- slavery arguments of William E. Channing, and of " Theological Colloquies."

THORNTON, William, superintendent of the patent-office, b. in Tortola, W. I. ; d. in Washing-