| Notes |
- According to family tradition, Thomas Thornton was allegedly banished from his family farm in England over an incident relating to a prize mare. His family apparently had vast estates just outside of London. Thomas' father had a prized black mare that was being raised for showing. No one was supposed to ride this horse, but one day, when Thomas' father was in London on business, Thomas took her out for a ride. The horse stumbled and was fatally injured. The story further goes that he nearly rode the horse over a cliff [though this could be an embellishment]. Thomas' mother was furious. She knew that her husband would also be furious so she packed Thomas off with whatever he could carry and shipped him off to Canada before his father could returned from London "to kill him". They never spoke again. Thomas allegedly arrived in Canada in his teens with no family, no trade, no place to live, not knowing a soul, with perhaps a suitcase of belongings and whatever money his mother had given him.
Census records prove this story to be completely false... sort of...
The story is certainly not true of Thomas himself. Thomas' second marriage record gives his parents as William and Sophia Thornton. Only one such couple exists in the IGI. They have a son matching the birth of Thomas, and census records confirm him to be the correct Thomas. He is found in the 1841 and 1851 censuses in England and does not appear in Canada until 1861, while he disappears from the 1861 English census.
These census records confirm that Thomas was living as a bachelor with his widowed father in Hallidon, Northamptonshire, England as late as 1851 at age 28. Both Thomas and his father were employed as agricultural labourers -- clearly not a baron and his son! Sometime between 1851-1861 Thomas immigrated by himself to Oxford County, Ontario, Canada. There was already a large family of English-born Thorntons living in Oxford at that time and it's possible that Thomas moved to be with relatives.
But the story of the falling out with the landed father may not be entirely false either. It may simply be distorted and attached to the wrong generation. Just a stone's throw from Hallidon is the large estate of Brockhall and Newnham, owned by the Thornton family from 1652 to the mid-twentieth century. Census records show a finite concentration of Thornton familes living within 10 miles of Brockhall strongly suggesting a common family of origin for all these families. So it would appear very likely that Thomas did descend from a lesser cadet branch of the Thorntons of Brockhall and Newnham. And this family did also own land just outside of London. The story of the horse could easily be true, but probably of Thomas' grandfather, and over time the story has simply been attached to the wrong person.
We don't know where or how Thomas met Sarah (Barnes) Reynolds, but she had just been widowed and was caring for a newborn son, Charles. Thomas married Sarah and raised (and probably adopted) Charles as his own son. The 1881 census shows Charles last name as Thornton. Thomas and Sarah later had a son of their own, John, and then a daughter, Anne. No record of these births has yet been found.
When Anne was just a few weeks old, her mother died from pneumonia in a very tragic tale (told in her note file). Anne was still nursing, so Thomas could not look after her and was forced to give her up for adoption. She was raised by an unknown family in Hamilton.
Even though Thomas' ancestral family apparently had vast estates in England, Thomas lived his life in near poverty. When his wife Sarah died, Thomas could not afford a funeral and she is buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. He was invoiced $2 for the digging fee -- that appears to have been all he could afford.
In 1881 Thomas was living in Sarnia raising two pre-teen boys on his own. He never remarried.
His death certificate lists his occupation as "stove mounter" while the 1881 census lists his occupation as "stone mason" so it seems likely that he had no specific trade. He was probably a general labourer working at whatever job he could find.
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Abt 1822 - 1889 (~ 67 years)
