Mary Chew Paca

Wife of Declaration Signer William Paca

Mary Chew was born in 1736 at Anne Arundel County, Maryland, into one of Maryland's most prominent families. She was the daughter of Samuel and Henrietta Lloyd Chew, and a direct descendant of John Chew, who arrived at Jamestown in 1622 on the ship Charitie. The book, Historic Families of America, says of the Chews: "They belong to that remarkable group of families which, founded in the Southern Colonies by ancestors of excellent birth and breeding, assumed at once a position of social and public consequence, and subsequent generations, by the merits and character of their members, as well as by influential alliances, steadily maintained and strengthened their original prestige."


William Paca

William Paca was born on October 31, 1740, at his family's home near Abingdon, in the British colony of Maryland. He was the second son of John Paca - a wealthy planter of Italian descent. William was a member of the fourth generation of Paca men in Maryland, his great-grandfather Robert having emigrated in the 1640s. William was educated in Philadelphia, graduating from the College of Philadelphia in 1759 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

In the early summer of 1759, Paca returned to Maryland and settled in Annapolis and studied law for two years under Stephen Bordley, one of the colony's most prominent lawyers. In 1761, Paca traveled to England to complete his studies and spent two years at the Inner Temple in London. Upon his return to Annapolis, Paca was admitted to the Bar, and began his legal career on October 27, 1761, when he was admitted to practice law in Annapolis Mayor's Court. He eventually qualified to practice in several county courts, as well as the more prestigious provincial courts.

Mary Chew married William Paca on May 26, 1763. She was a girl of considerable wealth, and their marriage ensured his position among the Maryland gentry. William was a young lawyer who had just been elected a member of the Maryland Provincial Assembly. Mary gave birth to three children, but only one child survived to adulthood, a son named John born March 17, 1771.

William Paca House
Mary Chew was described as "an amiable and most agreeable young lady of this City, with a very considerable fortune." Part of her wealth went toward the building of their five-part Georgian mansion with extensive gardens in Annapolis. Four days after their wedding, the Pacas purchased two lots in Annapolis and soon began building their new home. Constructed between 1763 and 1765, the estate is known chiefly for its elegant grounds, including five terraces, a fish-shaped pond, and a wilderness garden. The Paca Garden covers two acres behind the home.


William Paca House and Gardens

During the 1760s, Paca took an active role in Maryland politics. With fellow attorney Samuel Chase, he led local protests in 1765 against the Stamp Act and organized the Anne Arundel County chapter of the Sons of Liberty. An ardent patriot, Paca preferred to work behind the scenes, writing newspaper articles, and leaving the speeches and rabble rousing to others. He and Chase made a terrific team, with Paca writing many of the speeches that Chase would make.

At this time, Paca was considered the finest lawyer in Maryland, and was noted for his "incredible insight and logical power." A distinguished figure in public life, William Paca served as an Annapolis councilman and mayor, a vestryman of St. Anne's Church, and in 1767, a representative of the town in the Maryland House of Delegates, and remained so through the final Provincial Assembly of 1774.

In the early 1770s, Paca joined other Maryland patriots in urging governmental regulation of fees paid to civil officers and in opposing the poll tax, which was used to pay the salaries of Anglican clergy in the American colonies. Elected to the Maryland colonial assembly in 1771, he served for three years, actively opposing British attempts to tax the colonists without their consent.

In 1773, Paca became a member of the Maryland Committee of Correspondence. The following year, along with Samuel Chase and Thomas Johnson, Paca acted as counsel for fellow legislator Joseph H. Harrison, who had been jailed for refusing to pay the poll tax. All three men also attended the first provincial convention that same year and received appointments to the First Continental Congress.

Mary Chew Paca did not long survive to enjoy the successes and triumphs that came to her husband during his honored public career. She died on January 15, 1774, at the age of 38.

In the interval between Mary Chew Paca's death in 1774 and his second marriage in 1777, Paca fathered two illegitimate children, by two different women. A daughter named Hester was born August 26, 1775; her mother was a free black woman, creating somewhat of a scandal at the time. Paca raised Hester and sent her to the finest boarding school in Philadelphia. Paca had another child by a woman he did not marry - Henrietta Maria, born in 1776, the daughter of Sarah Joice of Annapolis.

In June 1774, the anti-British faction in the Maryland legislature, headed by Paca and Chase, went toe to toe with the proprietary governor. The patriots formed a Provisional Convention that assumed control of the Maryland government. At this convention Paca, Chase, Johnson, and Charles Carroll all received appointments to the Continental Congress, where he served from 1774 until 1779.

In the spring and early summer of 1776, the Provisional Convention refused to authorize its Delegates to vote for independence. Paca, Chase, and Carroll worked tirelessly to build alliances and gain the support needed within the Convention. Finally the convention was swayed, and on the floor of the Continental Congress, Maryland voted for independence on July 1 and 2, 1776. On August 2, 1776, Paca, Chase, Carroll, and Thomas Stone signed the Declaration of Independence for Maryland.

On February 28, 1777, while a delegate in the Congress, William Paca married Anne Harrison, daughter of Philadelphia merchant and former mayor Henry Harrison. In October 1778, the couple had a son Henry.

Paca meant it when he pledged his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor by signing the Declaration. He spent thousands of dollars of his own money outfitting troops and supplying the American Army during the Revolutionary War.

In 1777, Paca began a two-year term in the Maryland Senate, served in the militia, and sat on the council of safety. In 1779, Paca resigned his position in the Continental Congress to become Chief Justice of the Maryland Superior Court. Paca distinguished himself in that position, then as Judge of the Admiralty Court, which tried maritime cases. Between the years 1778 and 1782, Paca distinguished himself in those positions.

Anne Harrison Paca died on February 18, 1780, at age 23; their son Henry died in 1781.

A few months after Anne's death, Paca sold his home in Annapolis and moved to Wye Island on Maryland's Eastern Shore, although he continued to own property in and spend time in Annapolis. Mary Chew Paca had inherited half of Wye Island, which passed to William Paca after her death.


Wye Plantation House

Paca resigned his judgeship when elected Governor of Maryland in 1782. As Governor, he concerned himself with the welfare of war veterans and other postwar problems; he raised funds for Washington College, the first institution of higher learning in Maryland, and served on its board of visitors. He served three one-year terms (the statutory limit) and was in office when Congress met in Annapolis in 1783-1784, where it ratified the Treaty of Paris on January 15, 1784.

In his later life, Paca became one of America's wealthiest men. Following the expiration of his third term in 1785, Paca moved permanently to his plantation on the Eastern Shore. The Wye Plantation house was built in 1765 and extensively renovated in 1790, with Joseph Clark as architect, at a cost of $20,000. In 1786, Paca represented the Eastern Shore district (Queen Anne County) in the House of Delegates.

When the US Constitution was written in 1787, the Bill of Rights (the first ten Amendments to the Constitution) was created to ensure personal freedoms and to limit Federal powers. William Paca wrote the provisions for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and legal protection for citizens accused of crimes. Paca represented Harford County at the Ratification Convention held in Baltimore in April 1788, and urged its adoption.

Despite Paca's opposition to the new government, President George Washington appointed him Federal District Judge for Maryland in December 1789, a position he held for the remainder of his life.

William Paca died on October 13, 1799, at Wye Plantation less than three weeks before his 59th birthday, and is buried at the family cemetery there.


Governor William Paca Gravesite
Wye Plantation
Wye Island
Maryland

SOURCES
William Paca
Mary Chew Paca
William Paca: Maryland
William Paca Biography
Wikipedia: William Paca
William Paca (1740-1799)
Biography of William Paca
Maryland: The Seventh State
William Paca House and Gardens
William Paca: Forgotten Founder
Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Martha Devotion Huntington

Wife of Declaration Signer Samuel Huntington

Martha Devotion, oldest daughter of Reverend Ebenezer and Martha Lathrop Devotion, was born in 1740. Samuel Huntington was born on July 16, 1731, at Windham, Connecticut, the fourth of ten children. His father, Nathaniel Huntington, son of one of the founders of the town, settled along the banks of Merrick's Brook near the center of Windham. There he and his wife Mehetabel raised their large family on a 400-acre farm and played an active role in the community.

Nathaniel, as befitting his status as eldest son, was sent to Yale College, and became a Congregational minister in Ellington. Second son Samuel watched several of his brothers attend college, while he worked on the farm. He was much more inclined to studies, and would probably have been happier going to Yale himself. He began studying in his spare time with the encouragement of the Reverend Ebenezer Devotion, the family minister who lived nearby.


Samuel Huntington

Samuel expanded his reading, studying law, perhaps using books borrowed from two Windham lawyers. On December 2, 1754, he was admitted to the bar in Windham, and by 1760 he had moved to the larger town of Norwich, where there was ample work for the young lawyer.

Martha Devotion married Samuel Huntington on April 17, 1761, and they settled in Norwich, where they had numerous influential relatives to help them along, including the Lathrops, Huntingtons and other prominent families. Samuel's previous visits to the parson's library probably also have served as visits to Reverend Devotion's daughter Martha, since Samuel married her as soon as he had established himself with a home and steady income. She was twenty-two years old at the time of their marriage; he was thirty.

Few marriages have brought together two more congenial spirits. Blessed with no children of their own, they were the more a care and joy to each other. Their home was felt to be a home to all who had the good fortune to enjoy its hospitalities, and they frequently played host to a large circle of relatives and friends, made welcome with a cheer as bountiful as it was spontaneous.

Huntington built up an extended legal practice in Norwich, handling a variety of cases, and soon earned a solid reputation. He often represented the town in county court, and his practice increased to include several out-of-state clients, concerned with business in Connecticut. He began to take an active part in political affairs of the province. Politics was no novelty to Martha, because her father was ardently interested in the politics of Connecticut and represented Windham in the General Assembly from 1760 until 1771, the year of his death.

In a surprisingly short time, Norwich asked Samuel to represent them at the General Assembly. The same year, 1765, he was appointed by the General Assembly for the first of nine years as Justice of the Peace in Norwich, and also became a selectman. About the same time, he was appointed a King's Attorney. Nine years later, Samuel's conscience caused him to resign from this post and turn his back on what might have been a bright and comfortable future in the employment of the King.

Instead, Samuel Huntington became a patriot and dedicated his life to public service. In less than a decade, Samuel was receiving notice on a larger scale. The General Assembly appointed him an Assistant Judge of the Superior Court in 1773 and continued him in the position until 1784, when he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Errors. Although personal information about Huntington is limited, he was apparently ambitious but not arrogant. Well-connected, and with an ability to diplomatically get things done by persuasion or compromise, he gained the approval of freemen, as well as of the elite who governed the colony.


Samuel Huntington Birthplace
Windham, Connecticut

Although by nature diplomatic, Huntington shared the colony's growing frustration with the taxes and restrictions coming from Parliament. A well-attended Norwich meeting in June 1774 chose a committee of nine men to draw up a resolution regarding "this Alarming Crisis of affairs Relative to the Natural Rights and Privileges of the People." Samuel Huntington's name came first on the list, and the resulting resolution pledged that Norwich inhabitants would defend the "Liberties and Immunities of British America," and would cooperate with the other colonies in doing so.

On May 8, 1775, he moderated a meeting that instructed the Selectmen and Committee of Inspection to take care that no one "inimical to the Common Cause of America" be allowed to settle in town. Huntington was not a radical, but it is clear where his sentiments lay. Three days later, again representing Norwich at Hartford, he was elected to the Upper House of the General Assembly. Later in that session he was named to the Council of Safety, and in October was chosen as one of Connecticut's delegates to the Continental Congress, to begin serving in January 1776. That year in Philadelphia, he would begin his national service, forming relationships with well-known delegates from other colonies.

By this time, Samuel was quite prosperous and had begun to accumulate real estate in Windham and Norwich. Samuel and Martha had no children of their own, but did not have an empty household. Martha's sister Hannah had married Samuel's brother, the Reverend Joseph Huntington. When Hannah died in 1771, two of their three children – Samuel and Fanny – came to live with the Huntingtons. Martha and Samuel raised and educated their niece and nephew as if they were their own.

The Huntington household had a reputation for youthful gatherings and plenty of music, and Samuel was apparently quite close to his extended family, which eventually included Martha's young step-brother Mason Cogswell, after his mother died. When Samuel was asked to represent Connecticut at the Continental Congress, and then found it difficult to get back permanently to Connecticut, it was apparently distressing for him to be away from home for such a long time. He commented often on wishing he could go home.

With Oliver Wolcott, Samuel Huntington made a difficult journey of about two weeks in January 1776 to begin service in the Continental Congress. They arrived in Philadelphia on January 15, but Huntington was soon ill with smallpox, and was not able to carry on with his duties until late February.

In constant correspondence with individuals and the government back home, Connecticut's delegates Huntington, Wolcott, and Roger Sherman received word of the General Assembly's June vote, authorizing them to join the other colonies in declaring independence. Thus, diplomatic Samuel Huntington, who had never been prominent among the radical element agitating for breaking away from Britain, voted for and signed the Declaration of Independence.


Samuel Huntington Signature
On the Declaration of Independence

Aside from brief visits home in April and June, Huntington was in Philadelphia ten long months in 1776. Long days in Congress, a heavy load of committee assignments, dislike of the city, slow and inadequate reimbursement for his living expenses, and worry about family and business at home left him anxious to be done.

Arriving in Norwich in November, he immediately was caught up in the war effort at home as the Council of Safety and General Assembly grappled with the problems of provisions, prices, raising militia, and protecting the coast. Although again elected a delegate for 1777, there was work to be done in Connecticut, and Huntington stayed close to home. In July 1777, Huntington and other representatives of New England states and New York met to discuss economic problems brought on by the war, such as high prices, inflation, and unstable paper money.

In February 1778, Huntington headed back to Philadelphia with an appreciation of the effects of the war on the state level and in communities like Norwich. In his absence, Congress had written Articles of Confederation, but they were far from perfect, and states were slow to ratify. Huntington saw the need for some form of unified government and supported passage. After signing this new constitution, the Articles of Confederation, for Connecticut, Samuel headed for home in July on a leave of absence.

Again elected congressman in the fall of 1778, he reported to Philadelphia the next May. This session involved even more committee appointments and more visibility, especially on three major committees – the Marine Committee, a committee assigned to prepare instructions for negotiating a peace with Great Britain, and another to plan for one or more supreme courts of appeal.

On September 9, 1779, Huntington requested leave to again return to Connecticut, but before he could leave, he was elected President of the Continental Congress to replace John Jay, who had been appointed minister to Spain. By this time, Huntington had considerable experience and seniority, and was known to not let regional biases control his stand on national issues, making him an acceptable choice for competing regions. The presidency did not involve a great deal of prestige or direct power, but the quality of leadership could help determine whether factions could agree and business could be accomplished.

When it became apparent that he would need to stay in Philadelphia for the year of his presidency, after already having been away since May, Samuel sent for Martha, who arrived late in December. Like Samuel, she endured a bout of smallpox almost immediately upon arrival. Congress provided an expensive home, food and household supplies, and a staff. In spite of living more frugally than his predecessors, Huntington found the position a financial hardship. The presidency carried no additional salary, but he was expected to entertain other members of Congress and foreign dignitaries, while his own business interests in Connecticut were languishing. The Connecticut treasury forwarded him funds to help, but not enough to cover his expenses.

Huntington's diplomatic skills were put to the test presiding over a sometimes contentious Congress. He spent long hours in correspondence with military and governmental officials in states and abroad, and in composing official documents. Although no longer expected to do committee work, he was still an active delegate from Connecticut, necessitating further correspondence with Governor Jonathan Trumbull and others. He dealt with absenteeism, irregular mail service, and constant worries about progress of the war and the economy.

Pressing the states to provide their quota of much-needed men and supplies was difficult without a means of enforcement or a stable currency. Huntington kept up correspondence with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and others as they worked on diplomatic missions in Europe, and personally made friends with the French minister.

Although Huntington expected his term to expire in September 1780, Congress voted to keep him for another term. With the ratification vote of Maryland, the last hold-out state, the Articles of Confederation became the official constitution on March 1, 1781. The thirteen colonies became a nation, and some consider Samuel Huntington the first President of the United States.

In July 1781, Samuel resigned the Presidency and returned to Connecticut, hoping to stay. Business matters back home had been neglected too long, and his judgeship and seat on the Governor's Council had been held open for him. His homecoming on July 25, 1781, was probably not as comforting as he had hoped.

On September 6, Norwich native Benedict Arnold and the British brought the war to southeastern Connecticut, attacking and burning nearby New London, then overwhelming Fort Griswold on the opposite shore of the river. Undoubtedly friends and acquaintances of the Huntington family were among those killed or affected, and Norwich was just upriver from the attacks. A month later, his mother Mehetable died.

Resuming his role in the General Assembly that fall, Huntington became active in committee work. Over the next two years, he drafted the first copyright law in America and prepared numerous reports. When re-elected to Congress in May 1782, he chose not to attend, leaving the representation to others, but when again designated a delegate in 1783, he relented and returned one more time to Congress, meeting this time at Princeton, New Jersey.

The war was over, although as yet unofficially, and Congress dealt with military pay problems, choosing a location for the capitol, and a variety of issues involved in the transition from wartime to establishing a new country. Huntington had served in Congress and as President during some of the most difficult years of the war, and he was again in Congress in October 1783 when word arrived that the Treaty of Paris had been signed.

In November 1783, Huntington finally returned home to stay. He was now a national figure, and in a position to act as liaison with other states and the national government on issues of mutual concern. Samuel was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1784 and 1785. He worked on rebuilding his law practice, and tutored students in law, including his namesake nephew.


Samuel Huntington House
Norwich, Connecticut

The historian of Norwich wrote:

After the war, Samuel Huntington built a new house and lived in quiet dignity. A lively and happy circle of young people used frequently to assemble in this house, as visitors to the Governor's adopted children, or attracted by the beautiful Betsey Devotion, Mrs. Huntington's niece, and the belle of Windham, who spent much of her time here.

After the social chat and merry game of the parlor had taken their turn, they would frequently repair to the kitchen, and dance away till the oak floor shone under their feet, and the pewter quivered upon the dressers. These pastimes, however, had little in them of the nature of a ball; there were no expensive dresses, no collations, no late hours.

They seldom lasted beyond nine o'clock. According to the good old custom of Norwich, the ring of the bell at that hour broke up all meetings, dispersed all parties, put an end to all discussions, and sent all visitors quietly to their homes and their beds.

Mrs. Huntington was an affable but very plain lady. It is still remembered, that in a white short-gown and stiff petticoat, and clean muslin apron, with a nicely starched cap on her head, she would take her knitting and go out by two o'clock in the afternoon, to take tea unceremoniously with some respectable neighbor, the butcher's or blacksmith's wife perhaps. But this was in earlier days, before Mr. Huntington was President of Congress or Governor of Connecticut.

During the May 1786 session of the General Assembly, Samuel Huntington had again been elected Lieutenant Governor, and had already taken the oath of office, but no candidate for Governor won a majority of the vote. As a result, the General Assembly was free to select the Governor; they chose Samuel Huntington. He proved to be an extremely popular governor, winning each election until his death.

The Revolution and its aftermath had caused considerable financial stress in the state. Under Huntington's leadership, the General Assembly addressed economic problems by giving strong encouragement to developing industries, especially textiles, through tax exemptions and other financial incentives. In 1786 and 1788, Connecticut established procedures for handling claims by those injured in the Revolution. Land in the Western Reserve, held back when Connecticut surrendered title to most of the western lands claimed under the Charter of 1662, was used to help compensate those who had suffered loss of "homes or other property" to British actions during the war. A sale of the remainder of that reserve was used to establish a permanent school fund.

Huntington's tenure as Governor saw the establishment of Connecticut's first banks, incorporation of the Connecticut Medical Society, and state support of the struggling Yale College. Connecticut residents were barred from participating in the slave trade. The decision was made to erect "a large Convenient State House in the Town of Hartford to accommodate the General Assembly," although the building was not dedicated until after Huntington's death.

Samuel Huntington's letters provide little comment on personal events and relationships, apart from the frequent assertion that he'd much rather be home in Connecticut, tending to personal business and spending time with his family. His health was also a cause for concern, and he frequently referred to the strain of his work in Congress. William Strickland, an English visitor touring New England in 1794-5, visited Huntington in the company of Jeremiah Wadsworth. Strickland observed that Huntington was, "a respectable looking man grown gray in the service of his country, of strong sense in conversation, of a countenance sedate, thoughtful and benignant, and of plain unaffected manners."

As Connecticut considered ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788, Huntington spoke to the convention about the document he had been working hard to promote in the state. He spoke of the need for representative government and the need for two branches of legislature "that the one may be a check upon the other." Connecticut's representatives had played a great role in creating the compromise between large and small states that resulted in differing representation – according to population in the House of Representatives, an equal representation of states in the Senate – and the proposal to ratify passed by a large margin.

Martha Devotion Huntington died on June 4, 1794, in her fifty-sixth year. Samuel's brother Joseph also died in 1794, and Samuel's health began to decline during 1795.

Samuel Huntington died January 5, 1796, at Norwich, Connecticut, at the age of sixty-five, while still Governor of Connecticut.



Martha and Samuel Huntington Gravesite
Both Martha and Samuel Huntington were re-interred on November 24, 2003, at the Old Norwichtown Cemetery, where their remains rest side by side.

Newspaper accounts of Governor Huntington's funeral describe a procession of bands and dignitaries from his home to the nearby Norwich church, where his pastor and friend Joseph Strong preached the funeral sermon, characterizing Huntington as "naturally amiable," with a "candid deliberate manner," and describing his close relationship with his family.

The main beneficiary of Huntington's will was his nephew Samuel, who had followed in his footsteps as a lawyer, and later moved to Ohio, where he held many of the same offices his uncle had in Connecticut, including the governorship. Huntington's will and inventory show that he had acquired considerable real estate holdings, and he used some of these to provide for certain family members, as well as giving his childhood church land for a parsonage.

Samuel Huntington was well-known and respected in his day. He was awarded honorary degrees by Princeton, Dartmouth, and Yale, and counted among his acquaintances George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, but his fame has subsided over the years.

A biographer of Samuel Huntington wrote:

He was a thoughtful man and talked but little – the expression of his mind and heart was put forth in his actions. He seemed to have a natural timidity, or modesty, which some mistook for the reserve of haughtiness; yet with those with whom he was familiar he was free and winning in his manner. As a devoted Christian and a true patriot he never swerved from his duty or looked back after he had placed his hand to the work.

SOURCES
About Samuel Huntington
Martha Devotion Huntington
Governor Samuel Huntington
Wikipedia: Samuel Huntington
Samuel Huntington 1731 – 1796
Samuel Huntington: Connecticut
Samuel Huntington: Governor of Connecticut

Hannah Jack Thornton

Wife of Declaration Signer Dr. Matthew Thornton

Hannah Jack was born in 1742, daughter of Andrew and Mary Morrison Jack of Chester, New Hampshire. Her family had emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, but they were originally Scottish. Matthew Thornton was born in 1714 in Northern Ireland, and was brought to this country at the age of three years by his parents, James and Elizabeth Jenkins Thornton. Their family is said to have been among the 120 families who in five small ships, arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 17, 1718, and in the fall of that year went to Maine. When their ship landed in Maine in mid-winter, the passengers had no place to live, so they remained aboard ship.


Dr. Matthew Thornton
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.

The Thornton family settled first outside Brunswick, Maine, on a plot of land overlooking Maquoit Bay. In 1720, Brunswick was an outpost on the frontline that stood between the aspirations and momentum of three major cultures, each of which was seeking its own territory. This triangle of struggle consisted of:
The English in Boston and Falmouth to the West
The Native American peoples to the North and in the interior
The French of Acadia, Nova Scotia and the St. Lawrence to the East

In a way this juxtaposition was prophetic - for Matthew Thornton's private and public life was to interface, at different times, with the struggles of all three contenders. The first such encounter was to occur five years later; on July 11, 1722, a band of Native Americans attacked the town. James, Elizabeth, and Matthew fled from their burning home and escaped by canoe. Narrowly escaping death, they made their way initially to Casco Bay, Maine.

From there, they moved to the Scots-Irish settlement of Worcester, Massachusetts, which was a center of Scots-Irish settlement in New England. There, young Matthew grew up and received a classical education at the Worcester Academy, and became a doctor through the time-honored tradition of studying with an established physician.

In 1740, he moved to Londonderry, New Hampshire – another Scots-Irish settlement – where he opened a medical practice. The Scots-Irish Presbyterians of Worcester had been badly treated by the Massachusetts Congregationalists, and partly for that reason, Thornton and others of his nationality decided to live in Londonderry.

Skilled as a physician, well educated, and from the same European stock as most of the townspeople, Dr. Thornton soon became a leading member of the community. His success as a physician allowed him to purchase significant land holdings in Londonderry. He soon made a name for himself in civil matters, too, serving in a variety of town and provincial offices, as both a legislator and a judge. He received from Governor Benning Wentworth commissions as a colonel in the Londonderry militia and as Justice of the Peace.

In 1745, Matthew Thornton was still a bachelor and decided to volunteer his services as a military surgeon to the New Hampshire troops on the Fort Louisburg Expedition to Cape Breton, Canada. This was a major British campaign against the French, and ended with the taking of the French fort at the mouth of the St. Lawrence waterway. Although the army suffered greatly in capturing Fort Louisburg, Thornton's skill as a surgeon held his regiment's losses to only six men.

Thornton returned home to Londonderry, where he again practiced medicine and remained in the local militia. In the 1750s, he was described as tall, clear-eyed, and handsome, and charming, with storytelling ability that kept his friends enthralled for hours.

When Hannah Jack married Dr. Matthew Thornton in 1760, she was eighteen years old and he was 46. A story told in the History of New Boston NH states, "she was a beautiful young girl of eighteen, whom he has promised, when a child, to wait for and marry, as a reward to her taking some disagreeable medicine." Over the next fourteen years, five children were born to Dr. and Mrs. Thornton, four of whom grew to maturity: James, born in 1763, Andrew in 1766, Mary in 1768, Matthew in 1770, and Hannah in 1774.

In 1762, Dr. Thornton established a farm in New Boston, NH, remaining there eight years, then returning to Londonderry. In 1768, he and other members of his family were granted the township which still bears his name, Thornton, and he had interests in other towns as well.


Dr. Matthew Thornton House

Close-up of Plaque
Londonderry, New Hampshire
From about 1740 to 1779, this two story saltbox-style frame house belonged to Matthew Thornton, physician, politician, and jurist. Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971.

The American Revolution
Under the royal government, Dr. Thornton had held the office of justice of the peace and colonel of the militia. But when the political crisis arrived, when that government in America was dissolved, Thornton took an active part in the overthrow of the royal government in New Hampshire.

Dr. Thornton, at the age of 61, was too old to fight in the Revolutionary War (although he held the rank of colonel until 1779), but he readily served in the various provincial congresses. In early 1775, he was elected to the New Hampshire Provincial Congress at Exeter, where after a speech denouncing England's policies towards America, he won election as the body's President on May 17, 1775.

As President of the Provincial Congress, Dr. Thornton addressed the following letter to the inhabitants of the Colony of New Hampshire:
Exeter, June 2, 1775

To the Inhabitants of the Colony of New Hampshire :
Friends and brethren, you must all be sensible that the affairs of America have, at length, come to a very affecting and alarming crisis. The horrors and distresses of a civil war, which, till of late, we only had in contemplation, we now find ourselves obliged to realize. Painful beyond expression, have been those scenes of blood and devastation which the barbarous cruelty of British troops have placed before our eyes. Duty to God, to ourselves, to posterity, ends forced by the cries of slaughtered innocents, have urged us to take up arms in our own defence.

Such a day as this was never before known, either to us or to our fathers. You will give us leave, therefore, in whom you have reposed special confidence, as your representative body, to suggest a few things, which call for the serious attention of everyone who has the true interest of America at heart. We would, therefore, recommend to the colony at large, to cultivate that Christian union, harmony, and tender affection, which is the only foundation upon which our invaluable privileges can rest with any security, or our public measures be pursued with the least prospect of success.

We also recommend that a strict and inviolable regard be paid to the wise and judicious councils of the late American Congress, and particularly considering that the experience of almost every day points out to us the danger arising from the collection and movements of bodies of men, who, notwithstanding, we willingly hope would promote the common cause and serve the interest of their country, yet are in danger of pursuing a track which may cross the general plan, and so disconcert those public measures which we view as of the greatest importance.

We must, in the most express and urgent terms, recommend it that there may be no movements of this nature, but by the direction of the Committees of the respective Towns or Counties; and those Committees, at the same time, advising with this Congress or with the Committee of Safety in the recess of Congress, where the exigency of the case is not plainly too pressing to leave room for such advice.

We further recommend that the most industrious attention be paid to the cultivation of Lands and American Manufacture, in their various branches, especially the Linen and Woolen ; and that the husbandry might be particularly managed with a view thereto — accordingly that the Farmer raise Flax and increase his flock of sheep to the extent of his ability.

We further recommend a serious and steady regard to the rules of temperance, sobriety and righteousness, and that those Laws which have heretofore been our security and defense from the hand of violence may still answer all their former valuable purposes, though persons of vicious and corrupt minds would willingly take advantage from our present situation.

In a word, we seriously and earnestly recommend the practice of that pure and undefiled religion which embalmed the memory of our pious ancestors, as that alone upon which we can build a solid hope and confidence in the Divine protection and favor, without whose blessing all the measures of safety we have or can propose will end in our shame and disappointment."
MATTHEW THORNTON

Dr. Matthew Thornton Signature
On the Declaration of Independence

From this time on, the members of the Congress virtually ignored the remnant of the royal government in Portsmouth, and they assumed the real authority for running the province. During this difficult period of transition from royal to provincial government, Dr. Thornton was the acknowledged leader of the government, acting as chairman of the Committee of Safety throughout the rest of 1775.

Dr. Thornton was asked to draft a plan of government for the colony, after dissolution of the royal government. He headed the five-man committee that drafted New Hampshire's Constitution, and upon its adoption on January 5, 1776, New Hampshire became the first of the original thirteen states to create a government independent of Britain.

In 1776, Thornton was elected the first Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, then became a member of the council, and was appointed as a Superior Court Justice. He also continued to serve on various committees of the legislature and the Committee of Safety.

Starting in the early summer of 1776, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia made a series of decisions which culminated in the Declaration of Independence. Thornton was not a member of the Congress when the Declaration was adopted, but by law was permitted to sign the Declaration of Independence on behalf of New Hampshire on November 4, 1776, the day after he arrived in Philadelphia to begin the first of two terms in the Congress.

Nearly eighteen months prior to his arrival in Philadelphia, Matthew Thornton had written a letter to Congress advocating complete independence from Great Britain. This was a view that was not universally supported at the time. However, by November 1776, it was the almost unanimous viewpoint of the activists in the Colonies.

Thornton was an active member of the Continental Congress from November 1776 through 1777. He was selected to attend Congress again, but declined to attend due to poor health. For the rest of his life, Thornton attended to State duties. From 1776 until 1782, he served as Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas – the superior court of New Hampshire.

The pressure of his many duties forced Thornton to end his medical practice in 1779. He served six years on the Superior Court and as Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, but in 1782 declined reappointment to those posts.

In 1780, he moved to Merrimack, New Hampshire, where he purchased the confiscated estate of Loyalist Edward Goldstone Lutwyche. While in his seventies, from 1784 – 1787, Thornton was a member of the New Hampshire State Senate, and from 1785 – 1786, a State Councilor.

Hannah Jack Thornton died on December 5, 1786, at the age of 44, and is buried in Thornton's Cemetery, Merrimack, NH.


Hannah Jack Thornton Gravesite

With the death of his wife in 1786 and of his son in the following year, and with increasing infirmities, Thornton retired to his farm and wrote political articles for the newspapers, even after the age of eighty. Surrounded by his family and friends, he passed the remainder of his days in dignified repose. He became a gentleman farmer, and operated the ferry on the Merrimack River still known as Thornton's Ferry.

Dr. Matthew Thornton died June 24, 1803, at the age of eighty-nine years, while visiting at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Hannah Thornton McGaw, in Newburyport, MA. His remains were brought back to Merrimack, and he was interred in the little burial ground at Thornton's Ferry, with only a modest tombstone to mark his resting place, with the inscription: "An honest man." Hannah is also buried there.


Dr. Matthew Thornton Monument

Close-up of Monument
On August 28, 1885, an act of the legislature authorized the erection of a suitable monument to his memory, upon a site selected and donated by the town. On September 29, 1892, this monument was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, the Hon. William T. Parker being president and Hon. Charles H. Burns the orator of the day.

SOURCES
Matthew Thornton
Framers of Freedom
Biographical Sketches
Hannah Jack Thornton
Matthew Thornton 1714-1803
Wikipedia: Matthew Thornton
Family Trees of Merrimack NH
Matthew Thornton: New Hampshire
Maine Ulster Scots Project – PDF File
Signer of the Declaration of Independence