Holbrook line: Benjamin Thornton abt 1681-1742

 I confess that there is much about Benjamin Thornton that is unknown, and much of what is "known" is undocumented, or at least I haven't found records yet.  Therefore, this will be a short post but it will serve to remind us of this part of our family history, and will remind family historians that even in New England, which kept pretty good records ever since the earliest days, much has slipped through the cracks of time.

Benjamin Thornton was born in Providence (Plantation), Rhode Island about 1681.  His father was John Thornton, but there is some dissent about the name of his mother.  Many sites show Sarah Thurston, although I've not found any records showing her name, so take this with a grain of salt.  Likely her name was Sarah, though.  John died in 1695 and his wife sometime after that, so Benjamin was left fatherless as a young teenager-not quite a man but it was surely time for him to be learning a trade, if he was not already doing so.  Benjamin was the youngest of the eight children, so he may have been kept at home a little longer than the other children, but all good things must come to an end.

Benjamin became a stonelayer.  I'm not sure whether this is the same thing as a stone mason, who cut, dressed, and placed stone, or whether he simply placed stones that were already cut.  One would be a laborer's job and one would imply some skill and training.  It's hard to know what "stonelayer" meant 300 years ago, and how precisely the word was used.  Benjamin had land as early as 1699, if this is the same Benjamin Thornton (there was at least one other Benjamin in Providence at the time, so I'm not sure we are talking about the same man).  It's possible this is land that he received when his father died in 1695.

 Benjamin married about 1699.  His wife's name is a matter of controversy.  There is a documented marriage of "Benjamin Thornton Jr" to Elizabeth Herendeen Gurney, but this marriage took place in 1738, when Benjamin was about 57 years old.  (It is likely this applies to another Benjamin, just as the records of Benjamin as a freeman in the 1680s also apply to a different Benjamin.) Most trees show Benjamin's wife to be a Gurney, possibly Mary, but I don't know what the basis is for that "fact". Benjamin and his wife are thought to be the parents of perhaps as many as six children.  He is sometimes credited with an additional daughter, Mary, who was born four years after Benjamin's death, so that is an error, either in date or in attribution. 

He seems to have sold the parcel he acquired in 1699 in 1707 but must have acquired additional land, for he sold 60 acres to Experience Mitchell in 1715. In 1742, he sold his son David 23 acres of his, Benjamin's, homestead, excepting "four rods" for a burying place.  This may have been in preparation for his death, which occurred sometime that same year. The land David purchased was in Glocester, which had just formed out of Providence Plantation.  It's possible this had been Thornton land for generations.  

There is much about Benjamin that I don't yet know-his religion, his possible military service, the names of his mother and his wife, and his degree of participation in town affairs.  I've not located a will nor an inventory.  We do know, however, that he worked to support his family, and that he lived in what was at the time an area still being developed into a town.  He was one of the men who helped build America, and this family.

The line of descent is:

Benjamin Thornton-possibly Mary, possibly Gurney

Sarah Thornton-Stephen Paine

Nathan Paine-Lillis Winsor

Deborah Paine-Enos Eddy

Joseph Eddy-Susan Lamphire

Susan Eddy-Hiram Stanard

Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick

Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants