The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: VA
Qualifying Service: Captain / Civil Service / Patriotic Service
The lineage of Anthony Thornton, II, in America runs back to the mid-1660s, making the Thornton family one of the oldest in Virginia. A fourth-generation Thornton in America, Anthony Thornton, II, was born November 15, 1727, at Ormesby, Caroline County, Virginia. His father, Anthony Thornton, I, built Ormesby as his home in or about the year 1715. His mother, Winifred Presley, was a daughter of Colonel John Presley of Northumberland House at Northumberland County, Virginia.
Anthony Thornton, II married Sarah Judith Taliafero in 1746. By 1767, Anthony had been named Sheriff and Justice of the Peace of Caroline County, Virginia. The American Revolution spanned the years 1775-1783, and Anthony Thornton, II, would have been 48 years of age at the outset of the conflict.
Anthony, along with 20 other gentlemen, was elected by freeholders to the Committee of Safety for Caroline and Southampton Counties, Virginia, November 10, 1775. “Under the Committee of Safety, the Virginia Convention divided the colony into defense regions.” Anthony was one of the three gentlemen representing Caroline County on the first regional Committee. He was appointed chairman of the Committee in the absence of Colonel James Taylor. Anthony was also a member of the Committee of Correspondence.
In addition to his public service, in Virginia Revolutionary ‘Publick’ Claims, there is a Caroline County entry for Anthony Thornton, II, that he also provided patriotic service by furnishing supplies to the Revolution:
Thornton, Antho. pasturage, stalling beeves
13s-4; assne Jas. Miller soldier wages #29-2 ;
assne Presley Thornton account ed settled
#10 7-9. p.29 Thornton, Antho. Sr. 360 #beef
#3-15; 250 bu corn of #25; gun of L5
Anthony Thornton died in 1782, aged 55 years. He was buried in a family cemetery at Ormesby, Caroline County, Virginia.
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