Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/307

 this date. As a messuage and two carucates of land at Caburn were conveyed to him in 17 Edward I (1288–9) by John Priorell (Coram Rege Rolls, 118 Rot. 33), and in 19 Edward I (1290–1) he held some lands to farm in Roxby, he may have been connected with the county of Lincoln. Possibly Alan de Thornton, who witnessed a deed (Assize Rolls, 541 b, Rot. 10 d) relating to the lands in Roxby, was his son.

Thornton's title to fame rests not so much on his judicial career as on a compendium which he made of the great work of Henry de Bracton. It seems to have contained no original matter, all reference even to the statutes which were enacted after the death of Bracton being omitted. The manuscript was discovered in the ‘Bibliotheca Burleiana’ by Selden, who thought that it was penned during its author's lifetime. It is clear, however, that it was not so. In the beginning of the compendium the statement is made that Master Gilbert was at that time eminently conspicuous for his knowledge, goodness, and mildness. This is obviously the addition of a transcriber writing some time after the date of the original manuscript. The compendium was divided into eight parts, of which three only were complete in Selden's time. No manuscript or transcript of it now exists. Our knowledge of it is derived solely from a description of it printed in the ‘Dissertation’ at the end of Selden's ‘Fleta’ (1647).

[Plea Rolls; Chancery Rolls; Foss's Judges; Selden's Fleta.]

 THORNTON, HENRY (1760–1815), philanthropist and economist, born on 10 March 1760, was the son of John Thornton, who was himself only son, by his first wife, Hannah Swynocke, of Robert Thornton of Clapham Common, a director of the Bank of England. Samuel Thornton [q. v.] was his elder brother.

The father, (1720–1790), born on 1 April 1720, inherited a large fortune and invested it in trade. He was frugal in personal expenditure, and gave away 2,000l. or 3,000l. a year. He became known as a munificent supporter of the first generation of ‘Evangelicals.’ He circulated immense quantities of bibles and religious books in all parts of the world, and printed many at his own expense. He bought advowsons in order to appoint deserving clergymen. When John Newton (1725–1807) [q. v.] settled at Olney, Thornton allowed him 200l. a year to be spent in hospitality, and promised as much more as might be needed. When Cowper took refuge with Newton during his mental disease in 1773–4, Thornton doubled this annuity. Thornton in 1779 presented Newton to the rectory of St. Mary Woolnoth. He was a constant friend to Cowper, who describes him in the poem on ‘Charity,’ and wrote some lines upon his death (, Works, ed. Southey, x. 29). Thornton was the first treasurer of the Marine Society, and his portrait by Gainsborough is in their board-room in Clarke's Place, Bishopsgate Street Within. He was a director of the Russia Company, but declined to be its governor, on the ground of his disapproval of some indecorums permitted at their public dinners. His strictness, and some oddities of manner, exposed him to sneers, to which he was absolutely indifferent. He was hospitable to congenial persons, though mixing little in general society. He died on 7 Nov. 1790. He had married (28 Nov. 1753) Lucy, only daughter and heiress of Samuel Watson of Kingston-upon-Hull. She had been much influenced by Dr. Watts. They had four children: Samuel [q. v.]; Robert, M.P. for Colchester; Jane, who married the Earl of Leven; and Henry.

Henry was sent at the age of five to the school of a Mr. Davis on Wandsworth Common, and at thirteen to a Mr. Roberts at Point Pleasant, Wandsworth. From his first school he brought more than the usual knowledge of Greek and Latin; but from Roberts, who undertook to teach without assistance not only Greek or Latin, but ‘French, rhetoric, drawing, arithmetic, reading, writing, speaking, geography, bowing, walking, fencing,’ besides Hebrew and mathematics, he learnt nothing except ‘habits of idleness.’ He started in life, as he said, with ‘next to no education,’ and without any political acquaintances. In 1778 Thornton returned to his home, and was placed in the counting-house of a Mr. Godfrey Thornton. In 1780 he entered his father's house, and two or three years later became a partner. The partnership was dissolved in 1784, when he joined the bank of Downe, Free, & Thornton. He was an active member of this firm until his death. In 1782 Thornton was invited to stand for Hull at a by-election, but withdrew upon finding that each voter expected a present of two guineas. In September 1782, however, he was elected for Southwark, and, although he always refused the guinea which was there expected for votes, he held the seat till the end of his life. He had two sharp contests in 1806 and 1807, and was unpopular with the mob, though generally respected for his integrity and independence. Thornton, though he held many whig principles, did not join either political party. He sympathised with the early stages of the French revolution, and, although he considered the war to be