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."
Read more about this topic: Matthew Thornton
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“In a period of a people’s life that bears the designation “transitional,” the task of a thinking individual, of a sincere citizen of his country, is to go forward, despite the dirt and difficulty of the path, to go forward without losing from view even for a moment those fundamental ideals on which the entire existence of the society to which he belongs is built.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)
“Ordinary time is “quality time” too. Everyday activities are not just necessities that keep you from serious child rearing: they are the best opportunities for learning you can give your child...because her chief task in her first three years is precisely to gain command of the day-to-day life you take for granted.”
—Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)