Author’s Note: This series of postings are taken from the
book Signing Their Lives Away by Denise Kiernan and Joseph D’Agnese. The publishers at Quirk Books kindly gave me
permission to judiciously quote from it on my blog. While I dispense with quotation marks, the
sentences are lifted directly from the book.
The purpose is to introduce you to those who signed the Declaration of
Independence and who often remain in the shadows of history. This book is a must for the home collection
of any avid reader, historian, or patriot.
New Hampshire LIVE
FREE OR DIE
3. Matthew
Thornton. Age at signing: about 62,
Profession: Physician
Young Matthew came of age in Worcester and, like his state
compatriot Josiah Bartlett, studied medicine by apprenticing with a physician
there. He then settled in Londonderry,
New Hampshire, established his practice, and did quite well.
…once Parliament enacted the Stamp Act, his politics reached
a turning point. He became a very vocal
and well-known advocate of independence and also served as chairman of the
local Committee of Safety, which was typically charged with protecting citizens
by mounting defenses. Thornton’s
committee also ended up assuming supreme executive power over the colony…
Not knowing if there would be a larger union, New Hampshire
formed its own independent government.
On January 5, 1776, Thornton’s committee announced plans for a new
government, and Thornton was swiftly elected the colony’s president, or
revolutionary executive – the first nonroyal governor, so to speak.
On his grave is a marble slab inscribed with the summation, “An
Honest Man.”
Painful beyond expression have been those scenes of Blood and Devastation which
the barbarous cruelty of British troops have placed before our eyes. Duty to
God, to ourselves, to Posterity, enforced by the cries of slaughtered Innocents,
have urged us to take up Arms in our Defence. Such a day as this was never
before known, either to us or to our Fathers." Matthew Thornton
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