William Thomas Thornton

Joint residuary legatee and thereby beneficiary of the compensation awarded to his mother Jane Thornton nee Butler (q.v.) for the Good Hope plantation in British Guiana. The enslaved people on Good Hope had been registered in 1832 in the names of Butler Edmund Thornton and William Thomas Thornton. This does not appear to be the same man as the William Thomas Thornton who was awarded the compensation for 14 enslaved people under Barbados claim no. 5022.

1. William Thomas Thornton and Butler Edmund Thornton were the sons of Edmund Thornton of Whittington Hall Lancashire, co-owner of Good Hope with Simon Fraser. Both Thornton sons were educated at Rugby, admitted aged 11 and 13 respectively in 1811.

2. In 1851 William Thomas Thornton aged 49 'Receiver General of Ireland revenue' born Lancaster, was living at 58 Upper Berkeley Street with his wife Harriet [sic] Isabella aged 44, a daughter Eleanor aged 32 [sic] and servants.

3. The confirmation under seal of the Commissariot of Edinburgh dated 13/03/1859 of Charles Edmund Thornton of Omagh Ireland the son as executor dative qua nearest kin of Hannah Isabella Cornelia Halkett Thornton of 1 Bellevue Terrace Edinburgh (the spouse of William Thomas Thornton) who died in St James London was sealed 05/04/1859. William Thomas Thornton and Hannah Isabella Cornelia Halkitt [sic] Craigie had married at Speldhurst Kent 07/06/1824.

NB This is not the same man as the William Thomas Thornton (1813-1880) who appears in the ODNB as 'economist and civil servant' (who in 1851 was living at 8 Marlboro Hill St John's Wood with wife Elizabeth Evelyn and son Edward Zohrab). It is noteworthy perhaps that William Thomas Thornton (1813-1880), who had no connection with Ireland, in apparent contrast to the William Thomas Thornton of the compensation records, wrote two works on Ireland in 1845 and 1848 detailed by the ODNB.

T71/885 British Guiana nos. 560A&B and 560C&D.

1. The Rugby Register, from the year 1675 to the present time p. 112; Will of Edmund Thornton of Whittington Hall Lancashire proved 28/07/1821 PROB 11/1646/284.

2. 1851 census online.

3. National Probate Calendar 1859; Ancestry.com, England and Wales Marriages,1538-1940 [database accessed 07/01/2014].