Later Life
He became a political essayist. He retired from his medical practice and in 1780 moved to Merrimack, New Hampshire where he farmed and operated a ferry with his family. Although he did not attend law school, he was given duties as an associate justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court about 1777. In his latter years he operated a ferry at Thornton's Ferry. From 1784 to 1787 Thornton was a member of the New Hampshire State Senate and combined this with the role of State Councillor from 1785 to 1786. His wife Hannah died in 1786.
Thornton died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, while visiting his daughter. Matthew Thornton is buried in Thornton Cemetery in Merrimack, and his grave reads "An Honest Man."
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“Every sign by itself seems dead. What gives it life?—In use it is alive. Is life breathed into it there?—Or is the use its life?”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
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—Bible: New Testament, Luke 12:17-20.