Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/310

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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ginia, to teach afflicted children in the fam- ily of William Boiling, and, as a result, Mr. Boiling established the first institution in America for the education of the deaf and dumb. The school had six or seven scholars and was under the charge of Braidwood, and, after several years, was abandoned on account of his bad habits, from which Mr. Boiling found it impossible to retrieve him. He died in 1819 or 1820. a victim of intem- perance.

Davies, William, a native of Delaware, sen of Rev. Samuel Davies, who succeeded Rev. Jonathan Edwards in the presidency oi Princeton College ; his mother, before her marriage, was Mary Holt, of Williamsburg, Virginia, sister of William Holt, mayor of that city. He graduated at Princeton Col- lege, and afterwards was a teacher there. Richard Stockton (a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence) became his guardian and law preceptor. He served through the revolutionary war, was engaged in various battles, and was made colonel. After the war. President Washington appointed him United States collector at Norfolk, an office which he held until the incoming of the Jef- ferson administration. Later he was ap- pointed to settle the war accounts between Virginia and the Federal government, which kept him for several years in New York and Philadelphia. He married Mary Murray Gordon, daughter of James Murray, and widow of Alexander Gordon, merchant of Petersburg.

Thornton, Anthony, born at **Ormsby," Caroline county, Virginia, February i, 1748, son of Anthony Thornton and Sarah Talia- ferro, his wife; was a member of the Caro-

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line county committee of safety in 1775- 1776, and during the revolution he was ap- pointed lieutenant-colonel of the militia in 1777; county lieutenant from 1779 to 1789. He commanded the Caroline militia. He was at the siege of Yorktown, and his force took part in the attack on Gloucester Point. In 1868 Col. Thornton removed with his family to Kentucky, where one of his de- scendants has in possession the sword which he carried during the war for independence. He died at Paris, Bourbon county, Ken- tucky, December 21, 1828. His brother, Presley, commanded a cavalry company, another brother was an aide to Washington, in the same war.

Thornton, James Bankhcad, born at "Mount Zephyr," Caroline county, Virginia, August 28, 1806, son of James B. Thornton, and grandson of Col. Anthony Thornton (q. v.). He was educated at William and Mary College and studied law. He was a member of the Virginia senate in 1838-40. He was one of the principal movers in the founding of the Virginia Militarj- Institute at Lexington. He practiced his profession at Warrenton, Fauquier county and sub- sequently at Bowling Green, Caroline coun- ty, \'irginia. In 1847 he removed to Mem- phis, Tennessee, where he continued to prac- tice law. He was author of a "Digest of the Conveyancing, Testamentary and Reg- istry Laws of the States of the Union" (Philadelphia, 1847), and a work on "As- signments,** the manuscript of which was burned by accident before it could be pub- lished. During the civil war he was identi- fied with the cause of the Southern Con- federacy. He died at Memphis, Tennessee, October 12, 1867.

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