illustrating a memoir in the ‘European Magazine’ for July 1803; another, engraved by Hill from the same, in the ‘Family Herbal,’ 1810; and one, also in octavo, engraved by the deaf and dumb B. Thomson, from a drawing made by Harlow in 1808, when only sixteen, in the ‘Outline of Botany,’ 1812. The genus Thorntonia, dedicated to his memory by Reichenbach, has not been maintained by botanists.
Besides the great work already described and contributions to the ‘Philosophical’ and ‘Monthly’ magazines (Roy. Soc. Cat. v. 982), Thornton published: 1. ‘The Politician's Creed … by an Independent,’ 1795–1799, 8vo. 2. ‘The Philosophy of Medicine, being Medical Extracts,’ 1st ed. 1796, 4 vols. 8vo; 2nd and 3rd ed. 1798; 4th ed. 1809, 5 vols.; 5th ed. 1813, 2 vols. 3. ‘The Philosophy of Politics, or Political Extracts on the Nature of Governments and their Administration,’ 1799, 3 vols. 8vo. 4. ‘Facts decisive in Favour of the Cow Pock,’ 1802, 8vo. 5. ‘Sketch of the Life and Writings of William Curtis,’ 1802?, 8vo; another edition in Curtis's ‘Lectures on Botany,’ 1804–5, 3 vols. 8vo. 6. ‘Plates of the Heart illustrative of the Circulation,’ 1804, 4to. 7. ‘Vaccinæ Vindiciæ, or a Vindication of the Cow Pock,’ 1806, 8vo. 8. ‘Practical Botany,’ 1808, 8vo. 9. ‘Botanical Extracts, or Philosophy of Botany,’ 1810, 2 vols. fol., with two portraits and one plate. 10. ‘Elementary Botanical Plates to illustrate “Botanical Extracts,”’ 1810, fol., with twenty-six portraits and 165 plates. 11. ‘Alpha Botanica,’ 1810, 8vo. 12. ‘Sketch of the Life and Writings of James Lee, prefixed to Lee's Introduction to the Science of Botany,’ 1810, 8vo. 13. ‘A New Family Herbal,’ 1810, 8vo, dedicated to Dr. Andrew Duncan, with woodcuts by Bewick; 2nd ed., dedicated to the Queen, but otherwise a reprint, 1814. 14. ‘A Grammar of Botany,’ 1811, 12mo; 2nd ed. 1814. 15. ‘The British Flora,’ 1812, 5 vols. 8vo. 16. ‘Elements of Botany,’ 1812, 2 vols. 8vo, dedicated to Professor Thomas Martyn. 17. ‘Outline of Botany,’ 1812, 8vo. 18. ‘School Virgil (Bucolics),’ 1812, 12mo; 2nd ed., a reprint, 1821, 8vo. 19. ‘Illustrations of the School Virgil,’ 1814, 12mo, worthless little woodcuts; re-issued in 1824 with additional woodcuts by Blake of fine quality. 20. ‘Juvenile Botany,’ 1818, 12mo; another edition, entitled ‘An Easy Introduction to the Science of Botany, through the Medium of Familiar Conversations between a Father and his Son,’ 1823, 8vo. 21. ‘Historical Readings for Schools,’ 1822, 12mo. 22. ‘The Greenhouse Companion,’ 1824. 23. ‘The Religious Use of Botany,’ 1824, 12mo. 24. ‘The Lord's Prayer, newly translated, with Notes,’ 1827, 4to.
[European Mag. July 1803; Gent. Mag. 1837, ii. 93; Munk's Coll. of Phys. iii. 98; Gardeners' Chronicle, 1894, ii. 89, 276.]
THORNTON, SAMUEL (1755–1838), director of the Bank of England, born in 1755, was the eldest son of John Thornton (1720–1790) [see under Thornton, Henry], by his wife Lucy, daughter of Samuel Watson. Henry Thornton [q. v.] was a younger brother. Samuel succeeded to his father's business, which he carried on with credit. In 1780 he was appointed a director of the Bank of England, and continued to hold that position for fifty-three years. On 31 March 1784 he was returned in the tory interest as M.P. for Kingston-upon-Hull, with William Wilberforce [q. v.] as his colleague, and continued to sit for the borough till 1806. In May 1807 he defeated Lord William Russell in the contest for the representation of Surrey, which the latter had held in five parliaments. He was himself defeated at the general election of 1812, but was re-elected at a by-election in the following year. In 1818, having failed to obtain re-election, he retired from public life.
In the House of Commons Thornton was a frequent speaker on commercial questions, and especially championed the interests of the Bank of England. On 15 Dec. 1790 he made a strong protest against taking half a a million from the deposits of the bank for unpaid dividends. He was a member of the select committee of 1793 on the state of commercial credit. He took a prominent part in the debates on the bank restriction bill of 1797, by which the suspension of cash payments was authorised. Repudiating all insinuations as to ministerial control of the private transactions of the bank, he protested that the necessity for the measure was not the result of the bank's operations, and strongly opposed the establishment of a rival bank. In order to check the proposals for a rival bank, Thornton moved in 1800 the renewal of the bank charter, which had still twelve years to run. Thornton had to meet many attacks on the bank in the form of suggestions to limit profits or to produce accounts, especially those made by Pascoe Grenfell [q. v.] in 1815–16. On 10 Feb. 1808 he stated that the public derived an annual profit of 595,000l. from the bank (Parl. Deb. x. 427). In May 1811, when Francis Horner [q. v.] had proposed the resumption of cash payments, Thornton declared that there was no limit to the distress and embarrassment that would follow such a measure (ib. xix.
