michaelcoyne

[michaelcoyne]

Dennis Stream, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada.

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Todd Mansion, c.1890-95. St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada.

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Border Crossing, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada

[michaelcoyne]

Capt. Matthew Thornton (1746-1824)

November 16, 2019. Updated February 6, 2020.

In 1821 Chief Justice of the United States, John Jay (1745-1829), said to his nephew, William Heathcote DeLancey (1797-1865), then a young clergyman: "Let me tell you, William, the true history of the American Revolution can never be written. You must be content to know that the fact is as I have said, and that a great many people in those days were not at all what they seemed, nor what they are generally believed to have been." I’m sure the degree to which this is true has been tested many times. Nonetheless, with those words in mind I present the story of my 4th great-grandfather, Captain Matthew Thornton, nephew of Hon. Matthew Thornton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and brother of Major John Thornton, commander of the escort for General George Washington and George Clinton (1st Governor of New York and later 4th Vice-President of the U.S.) from Fort Plain to Cherry Valley and Otsego Lake and return, during the summer of 1783.

Captain Matthew, as he was known, was chosen to represent the town of Thornton, New Hampshire, in the third Provincial Congress on 21 April 1775 in Exeter, as well as the 4th congress held in May. He was appointed to various committees including one to form a plan to regulate the militia. On 6 July 1775 he was recommended to serve as a Lieutenant in Captain Osgood's company in the Continental Army. He was also recommended by Col. David Hobart, Col. David Webster and Samuel Sheppard of the Committee of Safety to be allowed to enlist his own company of 43 able bodied men as soldiers. In their letter the men wrote that Matthew was "a man we can depend upon in the greatest trouble or distress".

Captain James Osgood and 1st Lieutenant Matthew Thornton were able to raise three companies who marched from Haverhill, New Hampshire on 8 September 1775 to Fort St. John, Quebec, which they captured on 2 November 1775, taking 600 prisoners and munitions of war.

Matthew Thornton's term of enlistment having then expired he was discharged on 21 December 1775 and mustered out of the army. On 3 February 1776, the Committee of Safety gave directions to pay off Lieut. Thornton's company, and on 10 February 1776, it ordered the Treasurer to pay Capt. Matthew Thornton his wages and rations, 18£ 19s 2d.

On 30 September 1777 Matthew Thornton was arrested, accused of being a traitor, and jailed in Exeter. It seems that he had been caught on 16 August 1777 at the Battle of Bennington on the British side of the breastwork. He claimed that he had left Thornton, NH to check on his property at Otter Creek, New York. He claimed that he was taken by Hessian soldiers (German troops numbering about 30,000 hired by the British to fight in the Revolutionary War) and forced to drive their wagons. Following an investigation and gathering of evidence by Capt. Ebenezer Webster (father of Daniel Webster, 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State) and a trial by jury, Capt. Thornton was found not guilty, and was acquitted.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

From all accounts Capt. Thornton was a man of sound principles who served honorably in the Revolutionary War, in public office and appointments, and in other positions of trust. Those were surely perilous times and in the end, as stated, he was declared innocent of the charge of treason by a court of law. It is an unfortunate fact that allegations of wrongdoing are often indelible, despite a verdict of innocence. Mere suspicion of Toryism could prove difficult or impossible to surmount. This apparently was the case with Capt. Thornton. Whether he had Loyalist sympathies, developed them as a result of the charges against which he was forced to defend himself, or simply wanted a new life for himself and his family (by this time he had six children), we will never know. In any event, although he previously took up arms against Canada, the war all but over, he came to St. Andrews, New Brunswick, in 1783, where he was granted property on the St. Croix River about a mile from where I am now sitting, and only a little further from where I was born and raised. This would support the claim that he was accepted into the Loyalist fold there present and joined it without undue reluctance. In the meantime, countless relatives, all descendants of Capt. Thornton and his wife, Mary (Crawford) Thornton, lived and still live, in proximity in Maine and New Brunswick, and beyond in the United States and Canada.

For better or worse, Captain Thorton is responsible for my being here, and I am (some 230 years later) a proud Canadian, the ties to the British monarchy being now largely symbolic. Since my paternal and maternal ancestors on my father’s side were ‘potato famine’ immigrants from Ireland I am ever mindful of the role played by the Crown in that dreadful saga. In short, while I cannot (and do not wish to) disavow my consanguinity with Capt. Thornton or, with so many unknowable facts, question his life choices, in the context of events as they retrospectively unfolded, my instinctive and philosophical affinity is with the Rebels. I will forever be inspired by the courage and determination of my Revolutionary ancestors, especially my 5th great uncle, Hon. Matthew Thornton, whose bold actions lead to his signature adorning the Declaration of Independence. The motto of the state of New Hampshire, the Constitution of which (the first in the Colonies) was devised in 1776 by a five-person committee chaired by Thornton, stiffens the spine of anyone vigilant of tyrants and tyranny. The hortatory words, “Live free or die”, were first uttered by Col. John Stark, who was appointed to his regimental post in 1775 by Thornton, then President of the Congress of the Colony of New Hampshire.

Matthew Thornton’s Commemorative Sign, Merrimack, New Hampshire.

As I learn more about my ancestors, humanly imperfect as they might have been, I will continue to celebrate their talents, recognize their accomplishments and occasional failings, and tell their stories. An abbreviated account of Capt. Matthew Thornton’s life can be found in the attached excerpts from the book ‘The Family of James Thornton, father of Hon. Matthew Thornton’, available digitally at archive.org courtesy of the Boston Public Library. James Thornton is my 6th great grandfather.

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