Matthew Thornton
Born: c. 1714
Died: June 24, 1803
Colony/State: New Hampshire
Occupation / Public Role: Physician, legislator, militia officer, judge
Contribution to the Founding Era: Signer of the Declaration of Independence and a public leader in New Hampshire during the Revolutionary era.
Matthew Thornton was an Irish-born physician and statesman who became one of New Hampshire’s representatives in the movement for American independence. He emigrated to North America as a child with his family and later built a successful medical practice in New Hampshire. He was active in colonial and state politics and also served in the militia and in the judiciary.
Thornton’s name appears among the signers of the Declaration of Independence, but he was one of the later signers. The National Archives notes that he signed after August 2, 1776, and that he was unable to place his name with the other New Hampshire delegates because there was no room left in that section of the engrossed document. The Archives timeline says he signed on November 19, 1776.
Before and during the Revolution, Thornton held several important public roles in New Hampshire. He was involved in the colony’s political life, served as a colonel in the militia, and later served as an associate justice of the New Hampshire superior court. His career made him one of those useful founding-era men who seemed to keep getting handed more jobs because apparently sleep was optional in the eighteenth century.
Though not as famous today as Jefferson, Adams, or Franklin, Thornton was part of the generation that turned colonial resistance into declared independence. His signature placed him permanently among the men who publicly backed the break with Great Britain. He died in 1803 at about eighty-nine years old.
Related Links
- Signers of the Declaration of Independence
- Declaration of Independence
- Thomas Jefferson
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