A John Thornton was Lord Mayor of York in the latter half of the fifteenth century.  he was the father of another John, who married a Mill Blades and had Richard, who married Jane Norman.

Richard and Jane had issue of Margaret and John, of whom the son married Anne Thomlinson and had issue by her of Richard, Thomas, John, Christopher, Francis, Anne, Jane, Elizabeth, and Dorothy, of whom the son Thomas married Helen, daughter of Percival Lumley and grandaughter of Lord Lumley, and had a son named John, who married Grace Withes or Wythers and was the father by her of the Reverend Thomas Thornton, who was one of the clergymen ejected from the ministry under the "Act of Uniformity" in 1662.  This Reverend Thomas Thornton came to America soon after this time.

 

One Hodgkin Thornton, who was living in Northumberland, England, in the latter half of the fifteenth century, left a son named Roger, who was the father of Sir Roger, John, and Giles.  Of these, John had a son named Nicholas, who was the father of Roger and Lawrence.  Of these, Roger left issue by his wife, Margaret Lawson, of Roger, Nicholas, and several daughters; and Lawrence was the father by his wife, Elizabeth Collingwood, of John, James, George, and Henry.  Of the last-mentioned brothers, John married Barbara, one of the daughters of Roger and Margaret Thornton, and had issue by her of a son named Nicholas, who married Jane Rateliffe and was the father in the early seventeenth century of Nicholas, John, Cutabert, Roger, Henry, and  E;;en; James had issue by his wife, Ann Fenwicke, of Robert, John, WIlliam, and several daughters, and Henry left issue by his wife, Barbara Fenwicke, of Nicholas and WIlliam.

 

Among the other early records of the name in the British Isles are those of Roger de Thorntone, of Cambridgeshire, in the year 1273; Hugh and Richard de Thorntone, of Yorkshire, about the same time; Laurence de Thorneton, of Lancashire, about 1340, who had two sons John and William de Thorneton; John Thornetone, of Cornhill, in 1515, Thomas Thornton, of Cambridgeshire, in the early sixteenth century, who was the father of Oliver, who had three sons, William, John, and Oliver; George Thorneton, of London, in 1570; John Thornton, of Northamptom, in the itme of Henry V111, who was the father of a son named Henry, who was the father  of Thomas, the father of John, Abaslom, Henry, Edward, and several daughters; Sir George Thornton, of County Limerick, in 1599; and Lieutenant Thornton, of Queen's County, in 1628.

 

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