Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/528

 1909. He was buried at Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin. A mural tablet has been erected in the Richmond Hospital, to commemorate his thirty-six years' services as surgeon, and his share in the rebuilding of the hospital in 1899. He married on 27 June 1878 Margaret Dalrymple, younger daughter of Abraham Stoker, chief clerk in the office of the chief secretary, Dublin Castle, and sister of Sir William Thornley Stoker, first baronet (1845–1912), surgeon, and of Bram Stoker (1848–1912), novelist. He left a son and daughter.

 THORNTON, EDWARD (1817–1906), diplomatist, born in London on 13 July 1817, was only surviving son of Sir Edward Thornton, G.C.B. [q. v.]. Educated at King's College, London, and at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he graduated B.A. among the senior optimes in 1840, proceeding M.A. in 1877. He was appointed attaché at Turin, April 1842, paid attaché at Mexico in February 1845, and secretary of legation there December 1853. He witnessed the occupation of Mexico by the United States forces in 1847, and rendered some secretarial assistance in the peace negotiations. He served as secretary to Sir Charles Hotham's special mission to the River Plate (1852–3), which resulted in the conclusion of a convention for the free navigation of the Parana and Uruguay rivers. He was appointed chargé d'affaires and consul-general at Monte Video in 1854, and minister plenipotentiary at Buenos Ayres in 1859. He was made C.B. in 1863 and was accredited to the republic of Paraguay in the same year. In July 1865 he was sent on a special mission to Brazil for the renewal of diplomatic relations (which had been broken off by the Brazilian government in 1863), and received shortly afterwards the definitive appointment of British envoy at Rio de Janeiro. In September 1867 he was nominated British envoy at Lisbon, but within a few days was selected for the difficult post of minister at Washington on the death of Sir Frederick W. A. Bruce [q. v.]. Thornton remained at Washington for over thirteen years. During the earlier period a state of tension existed between the two countries which at times almost threatened an open rupture. The American public resented the recognition by Great Britain of the southern states as belligerents. English sympathy for the South and the depredations of the Alabama and other confederate cruisers, which had escaped from or been received in British ports, increased the soreness of feeling. Other causes of dispute included questions of boundary between the United States and Canada, especially in the Straits of San Juan de Fuca to the south of Vancouver Island, and the exclusion of United States citizens from fishing privileges in the coastal waters of Canada which had been secured to them by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1814, but had been withdrawn in consequence of the denunciation of that treaty by the United States in 1865. Thornton brought to his work much patience and the spirit of calm, fair-minded moderation. But although some of the difficulties were settled, others persisted, and the irritation in the United States tended rather to augment than to diminish. Eventually a joint commission was instituted at Washington in February 1871 for the discussion and settlement of existing differences. Thornton's British colleagues were Earl de Grey (afterwards marquess of Ripon), Sir Stafford H. Northcote (subsequently earl of Iddesleigh), Sir John Alexander Macdonald [q. v.], prime minister of Canada, and Dr. Mountague Bernard [q. v.]. The result was the conclusion of the celebrated Treaty of Washington of 8 May 1871, by which the various outstanding questions and claims were referred to arbitration under specified conditions. Thornton, who was made K.C.B. in 1870, was created a privy councillor in August 1871. Further serious misunderstandings threatened during the progress of the arbitrations, but these were removed, and the eventual settlement did much to lead to more cordial feelings on the part of the United States towards this country. The United States government fully recognised that Thornton had effectively contributed to this result, and paid a tribute to his impartiality and judgment by selecting him in 1870 to act as arbitrator on the claim made on the Brazilian government for compensation on account of the loss of the American merchant vessel Canada on the coast of Brazil, and again from 1873 to 1876 on claims of United States and Mexican citizens. He was warmly thanked for these services, but declined offers of remuneration.

On 26 May 1881 Thornton succeeded Lord Dufferin [q.v. Suppl. II] as British ambassador at St. Petersburg. Here he again found 