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John Wingate Thornton

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Occupation
  
Attorney

Role
  
Lawyer

Nationality
  
American

Died
  
June 6, 1878, Scarborough

Genre
  
History

Education
  
Harvard Law School

Name
  
John Thornton


John Wingate Thornton

Born
  
August 12, 1818Saco, Maine, United States (
1818-08-12
)

Books
  
A Genealogical Memoir of, The Pulpit of the American, The Pulpit Of The Revolutio, Lives of Isaac Heath - an, Ancient Pemaquid - Maine: A

John Wingate Thornton (August 12, 1818–June 6, 1878) was a United States lawyer, historian, antiquarian, book collector and author.

Contents

Early life

He was born August 12, 1818, at the home of his grandfather, Thomas Gilbert Thornton in Saco, Maine. He attended school at Thornton Academy in Saco, Maine.

Career

While studying to become a lawyer, he worked for his uncle, John Fairfield and graduated from Harvard in 1840 with an LL.B. He was awarded an honorary degree of A.M. from Bowdoin College in 1860. He practiced law in Boston, Massachusetts. John Wingate Thornton researched and wrote numerous family genealogies and authored a number of books. In 1844 he was a founding member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and authored numerous articles for their publication, the Register. He was a member and Vice-President of the American Statistical Association, and a member and Vice-President of the Prince Society. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1855.

His 1844 report to the American Statistical Association was presented to Congress by John Quincy Adams who notes that it demonstrates "a multitude of gross and important errors in the printed census of 1840."

In August 1607, a company of Englishmen were landed near the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine with the intent of starting a colony known as the Popham Colony. However, half of the colony returned in December 1607 and the remaining members returned to England the following year. John Wingate Thornton was invited to deliver a speech on August 29, 1862, during an occasion set to commemorate the failed Popham Colony. Much to the chagrin of the audience and Fort Popham Celebration committee members, John Wingate Thornton correctly pointed out, in contradiction to the beliefs of those who invited him, that the Popham Colony was not the first attempt at New England colonization, and that additionally it was not a serious attempt at creating a permanent colony as only men and not entire families were sent. His unpopular speech was left out of the printed proceedings of the commemoration and John Wingate Thornton resorted to privately printing the text of his speech in 1863.

He died on June 6, 1878, at the Oak Hill family estate in Scarborough, Maine, and is buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Saco, Maine. A short biography of his life was written by Thomas Coffin Amory.

Marriage and family

On May 31, 1848 he was married to Elizabeth Wallace Bowles by the Reverend Augustus C. Thompson in Roxbury, Massachusetts. They had four children, only one of whom (Elizabeth Thorndike Thornton) survived to adulthood.

Published works

  • Memorial Of The American Statistical Association Praying The Adoption Of Measures For The Correction Of Errors In The Census, 1844; OCLC 13848351
  • Lives of Isaac Heath, and John Bowles, ... and of Rev. John Eliot jr, 1850; OCLC 3824853
  • Memoir of the Gilbert Family, 1850; OCLC 13990800
  • Mementos of the Swett Family, 1851; OCLC 16395396
  • Landing at Cape Anne, 1854; OCLC 5382334
  • Ancient Pemaquid, 1857; OCLC 23935503
  • Peter Oliver’s “Puritan Commonwealth” Reviewed, 1857; OCLC 10820661
  • First Records of Anglo-American Colonization, 1859; OCLC 6414115
  • Pulpit of the American Revolution, 1860; OCLC 249633623
  • Colonial Schemes of Popham and Gorges : Speech at the Fort Popham Celebration, August 29, 1862, 1863; OCLC 5362353
  • Historical Relation of New England to the English Commonwealth, 1874; OCLC 950363
  • References

    John Wingate Thornton Wikipedia


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