Matthew Thornton, New Hampshire

1714-1803

Representing New Hampshire at the Continental Congress

Matthew Thornton was born in Ireland in 1714. His parents emigrated to America when he was three. They first settled at Wiscasset, in Maine, but soon went to Worcester, Massachusetts, where Mathew received an academic education. He became a physician, and in 1745 was appointed surgeon to the New Hampshire troops in the expedition against Louisburg. He later held royal commissions as justice of the peace and colonel of militia. His medical practice was very successful and he acquired much land, becoming a leading member of the community in Londonderry. There he held many local offices while also representing Londonderry at the Provincial Assembly. Thornton eventually became President of that assembly. As a member of a local committee of Safety in 1775, he was asked to draft a plan of government for New Hampshire after dissolution of the royal government. His plan was adopted immediately and became the first constitution for that state (and was in fact the first new state constitution after the start of hostilities with Britain).

Thornton was then selected as the first President of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, and as a justice to the Superior Court, under the new constitution. He was also sent to the Continental Congress-too late to participate in the debates over Independence, but just in time to sign the Declaration on behalf of New Hampshire. He was selected to attend Congress again in 1777, but declined to attend due to poor health. For the rest of his life, Thornton attended to State duties. He also wrote political essays for the newspapers. He died at the age of 89, while on a visit to his daughter in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1803.

From: US History.org

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Probably six of the 56 signers belatedly penned their signatures, eight of them were foreign-born, and four were physicians. Matthew Thornton belongs in all three categories. Less exclusively, he ranks among the substantial number of signers whose national service was brief or relatively insignificant.

Thornton was born in Ireland about 1714. Approximately 4 years later, his Scotch-Irish parents emigrated with their family to America, settling first at Wiscasset, in present Maine, and then near Worcester, Mass. Young Thornton, after attending common schools, undertook the study of medicine with a local doctor. In 1740 he began what proved to be a thriving practice in the Scotch-Irish town of Londonderry (present Derry Village), N.H. Five years later, as a surgeon in the New Hampshire militia during King George's War (1740-48), he participated in the British expedition from New England that captured Louisbourg, the French fortress in Nova Scotia.

By 1758 Thornton was representing Londonderry in the colonial legislature and stayed there until 1775. During the long interim, about 1760 he married and began a family of five; and throughout the period he figured prominently in New Hampshire politics and Revolutionary activities. In 1775-76 he held the offices of president of the provincial assembly and constitutional convention, chairman of the council of safety, and member of the upper and lower houses of the legislature, as well as speaker of the former. Although he did not enter Congress until November 1776, or 3 months after the formal signing of the Declaration, he was granted permission to affix his signature.

About a year later, Thornton left Congress to devote his time to his duties as associate justice of the State Superior Court. Despite a lack of legal education, he had acquired this position in 1776. He held it until 1782, some 2 years after he retired from his medical practice in Londonderry and settled on a farm he purchased near Merrimack, N.H. Later, in 1784-86, he completed a tour in the State senate. He spent his last years farming and operating a ferry—Lutwyche's (later Thornton's) Ferry—across the Merrimack River.

Thornton died in 1803 at about the age of 89 while visiting his daughter in Newburyport, Mass. His grave is in Thornton's Ferry Cemetery, near the site of his Merrimack home.

From: National Park Service