Published Sources

 Sources

These are sources I used, especially those on-line that provided primary documents. However, the principal on-line documents  I used are from the collections in Founders On-line and on-line papers of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, the Adams Family, and Anna Marie Thornton. My footnotes provide links to every document. I am also slowly trying to share documents I copied while researching Through a Fiery Trial. That entails photographing 35 year old photocopies and uploading those images. My footnotes link to the blog posts that contain the documents: Commissioners' Records, Speculators' Papers: Greenleaf, Morris and Nicholson, Miscellaneous Sources. Other posts copy pages from printed sources that are quoted in the text: from my own books, and editorial commentary by C. M. Harris in volume one of Papers of William Thornton. A goodly number of Thornton's correspondence and writings collected by Harris are available in other on-line sources to which my footnotes provide a link. To those that aren't and that I quote in the text, I have made available in References to Papers of William Thornton.

Adams, William Howard, editor, Eye of Jefferson download available,

Allen, William, Chapter One: Grandeur on the Potomac; this web page offers another link to on-line chapters of the book.

Minutes of American Philosophical Society,

Amer. State Papers, Miscellaneous,  vol. I pp. 151ff &  American State Papers, Misc. vol. II,  p. 482 

American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine vol. 1,
vol 2

Annals of Congress, 4th Cong., 2d sess., 1704–11  ; Annals of Congress, 6th congress, appendix, p. 1494; Annals of Congress p. 1130

Architect of the Capitol webpage on Thornton

Arnebeck, Bob, Slave Labor in the Capital: Building Washington's Iconic Federal Landmarks, History Press, 2014, also see my web site on the book with many primary documents:

Arnebeck, Bob, Through A Fiery Trial: Building Washington 1790-1800, Madison Books, 1991. To my chagrin, only one-third of my book is available on-line as a sale inducement by Google Book. I have not received any royalties since 2014. To offer free access I have to publish it as an e-book. In this book, I have copied pages relating to Samuel Blodget, Blodget's Lottery, James Greenleaf, John Nicholson and James Hoban (1792-1796) and (1797-1800.)

Arnebeck, GW's negotiations to sell his Western lands.

Arnebeck, "Seat of Empire: the General and the Plan" and "Rises, Burns and Rises Again 1801-1820"

Arnebeck, "To Tease and Torment" Two Presidents Confront Suspicions of Sodomy,

Arnebeck, "Tracking the Speculators: Greenleaf and Nicholson in the Federal City." Washington History Vol. 3 # 1

Beck, Ben, Correspondence of James Birket, & Foster Family Webpage

Bell, Winfield, “Philadelphia Medical Students in Europe 1750-1800, Penn. Mag. Of Hist. And Bio, Jan 1943, pp. 9, 10

Berg, Scott W., Grand Avenues: The Story of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French Visionary Who Designed Washington D.C., Vintage Books, 2008.

Berlin, Jean V. "A Mistress and a Slave: Anna Maria Thornton and  John Arthur Bowen" Proceeding South Carolina Historical Associationy, 1990 (pdf) p.  70

Blodget, Economica; a Statistical Manual for the United States, 1806, 

Bowling, Kenneth R. The Creation of Washington, D.C.: The Idea of Location of the American Capital. George Mason University Press, Fairfax Virginia, 1991.

Bowling, Kenneth R., Peter Charles L'Enfant: Vision, Honor and Male Friendship in the Early American Republic.  Friends of the George Washington University Library, 2002.

Brown, Glenn,  1888, "The Tayloe Mansion..." American Architect and Building News, vol. XXIII, p. 6.

Brown, Glenn, "United States Capitol in 1800," Journal of Columbia Historical Society, volume 4, 1901

Brown, Glenn 1896, "Dr. William Thornton, Architect." Architectural Record, 1896 , Vol. VI, July-September (page 53ff) pdf.

Brown, Glenn, History of Capitol, new ed pp 113ff

Brown, Gordon S., Incidental Architect: William Thornton and the Cultural Life of Early Washington, 1794-1828. Ohio University Press, for the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, Athens, Ohio, 2009.

Paola Bertucci, "Shocking Subjects: Human Experiments and the Material Culture of Medical Electricity in Eighteenth-Century England." pdf

Brissot de Warville, J. P. New Travels in the United States,

W. H. Bryan, History of the National Capitol, vol. 1,  p. 315

Bulfinch, Ellen (editor), The Life and Letters of Charles Bulfinch Architect and Other Family Letters, 1896  p. 215;  

Bushong, William B.,  "Glenn Brown and the United States Capitol"

Margaret Callcott, editor, Mistress of Riverdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821, 1992., p 28

Carr, Mary, Thomas Wilkinson: A Friend of Wordsworth,  p. 8, 9

Carter, Edward C, Benjamin Henry Latrobe: Growth and Development of Washington. Records of Columbia, Historical Society, vol. 71/72, p 142.

Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, Sir Alexander Grant. 5th Bart. 

Chambers, William, A Treatise on Civil Architecture, vol. II, 1754. pp. 368. 408, 425

Century Magazine, vol. 78, 1909 p. 834

Chernow, Ron, George Washington: A Life, 2010p. 794

Clark, Allen, "Doctor and Mrs. Thornton" 

Clark, Allen Greenleaf and Law in the Federal City

Clark, Allen "The Mayoralty of Robert Brent." CHS vol. 33/34 pp. 283, 288-290

Cluss, Adolph, Address Before the American Institute of Architects, October 12, 1877.

Cohen, Kenneth They Will Have Their Game: Sporting Culture and the Making of the Early American Republic, pp. 114-16.

Coleman, Deidre, Henry Smeathman, the Flycatcher 2018, p. 24 Liverpool University Press,  

Corner, George W., The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush: His Travels Through Life together with his Commonplace Book for 1789-1813. Princeton University Press, 1948.

Corosino, Catherine Ann, The Woodlands: Documentation of an American Interior, Thesis, U. of Penn, 1997.

Delaware Historical and Cultural Affairs"John Dickinson: A Great Worthy of the Revolution."

Dobyns, Kenneth "Letter dated 9 Sept 1814 from Washington Mayor James H. Blake concerning British invasion of Washington."

Dobyns, Kenneth, History of the Patent Office, chapter 9,

Douglass, William, Annals of the first African church, in the United States of America, now styled the African Episcopal church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia,..., 

Driskel, Michael Paul, "By the Light of Providence: The Glory Altarpiece at St. Paul's Chapel, New York City" The Art Bulletin Vol. 89, No. 4 (Dec., 2007), pp. 715-737 ( JSTOR,)  .

Dunlap, William,  History of the Rise of Arts and Design of the Arts of Design in America, vol. 1, 1834,  

Ehrenberg, Ralph, "Nicholas King: First Surveyor of City of Washington 1803-1812", Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.Vol. 69/70, JSTOR 

Fairfax, Ferdinando, "Plan for liberating the Negroes...." in American Museum Magazine December 1790

Fitzroy Square 

Faujas, B., Travels in the Hebrides and England, p. 134

Ford, Notes on NoahWebster, p. 384

Hamlin, Teunis, "Historic Houses of Washington", Scribner's Magazine, vol. 14, p. 475

Harper's New Monthly Magazine, December 1859. p. 6

Harris, C. M. editor, Papers of William Thornton, volume one, 1781-1802. University of Virginia Press,  1995. p. 584

Harris, Charles M, Library of Congress web article "William Thornton 1759-1828." 

Hawkins, Don Alexander "Origins of the Rotunda" USCHS Capitol Dome, Summer 2013 (pdf)

Hoare, Prince, Memoirs of Granville Sharp 1820 (Google Books)

Hopkins, Samuel, Works of Samuel Hopkins p. 139

House report  397 United States Congressional serial set. 5407.
 n. 775  lots 

Hunsberger, George S., The Architecture of George Hadfield,  Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.
Vol. 51/52,

Hunt, Galliard, "W. Thornton and Negro Colonization" Amer. Antiquarian Soc. 1921,  pp. 57ff.

Jenkins, Charles F., Tortola: A Quaker Experiment of Long Ago in the Tropics. Friends Bookshop, London, 1923

 

Justice, Benjamin "A Window to the Past," American Educator Summer 2015

Kamoie, Laura, Irons in the Fire: Business History of the Tayloe Family and Virginia's Gentry, 2007.

Keeping Philadelphia Greenville Mansion. 

Kelliher, Hilton, "Thomas Wilkinson of Yanwath, Friend of Wordsworth and Coleridge"

Kimball, Fiske, and Bennett, Wells, "The Competition for the Federal Buildings, 1792-1793" Proceedings of the American Institute of Architect, January 1919, p.11. 

King, Julia, George Hadfield: Architect of the Federal City, 2014.

King, Robert, "A map of the city of Washington in the District of Columbia : established as the permanent seat of the government of the United States of America," 1818, Library of Congress
 

Latrobe, Benjamin,  The Journal of Latrobe, 1905

Latrobe, Benjamin Vindication, 1819

Latrobe, Benjamin, The Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of, Carter and Van Horne, editors.

Legacies of British Slavery, "Sir Alexander Grant" 

Lettsom, Recollections of Benjamin Rush, 1815, Google Books

Morgan. J. D., "Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant," Journal of Columbia Historical Society, vol 2. p119.

Mount Vernon Museum, "Particular description..."   of the house for Thomas Law built on Square 689

 (Mostly) IP History blog for copy of Robert Fulton's steamboat patent

Niemcewicz, Julian Ursyn, Under Their Vine and Fig Tree: Travels through America in 1797–1799, 1805, Mechie J. Budka, editor.

Paulson, George W. William Thornton, M D: Gentleman of the Enlightenment p. 77 (pdf) 2007

Peterson, Charles E., “Library Hall...” Trans. Am. Phil. Soc,, vol. 43, pt 1

Pettigrew, Thomas Joseph. WT to Lettsom, 22 May 1786, Selections of Medical Papers and Correspondence of the Late John Coakley Lettsom., pp. 222ff (google books)London 1817

 Pettigrew, Thomas Joseph. Volume two Memoirs of the Life and Writings of John Coakley Lettsom, with a Selection from his Correpondence, London 1817 & Google Books Pettigrew 2

Preston, Daniel, "Administration of Patent Office...." Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Autumn, 1985), pp. 331-353

Ridout V, Orlando  Building the Octagon,  The American Institute of Architects Press, Washington, D.C., 1989.

Robinson, Proceedings of the Free African Union Society. 

Rush, Benjamin, (edited by Lyman Butterfield) Letters of Benjamin Rush, vot 1, American Philosophical Society and Princeton U. Press 

Scott, Pamela, Stephen Hallet's Designs for the US Capitol 

Scott, Pamela with Charles Carroll Carter and William DiGiacomantonio, Creating Capitol Hill: Place Proprietors, and Peoples. United States Capitol Historical Society, Washington, D.C., 2018.

Scott, Pamela, Washington History Mag., vol. 3 no. 1, "L'Enfant's Washington Described".

Scott, Pamela, "A Communication Between the Offices: Designing the Executive Office Building 1791-1800." White House Historical Association,

Sharp, Granville, Memoirs of Granville Sharp, pp. 315ff

Sherrwood, Henry Noble, "Formation of American Colonization Society," Journal of Negro History 1917;

Jonathan Singerton, "The United States as an Abode of Misery: Maria von Borns Life in the Early Republic"

Smith, Ryan, Robert Morris's Folly: The Architectural and Financial Failures of an American Founder, 2014.

Sutcliffe, Alice Crary,  Robert Fulton, p. 351

Tayloe, Benjamin Ogle, In Memoriam, Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, compiled by Winslow Watson. Privately Printed, 1872

Thornton, Anna Maria. The Diary of Mrs. William Thornton, 1800-1863. Records of the Columbia Historical Society, volume 10, 1907,

Thornton, Anna Maria. War Diary 

Thornton, William, Cadmus Or, A Treatise on the Elements of Written Language Illustrating, by a Philosophical Division of Speech, the Power of Each Character, Thereby Mutually Fixing the Orthography and Orthoepy : with an Essay on the Mode of Teaching the Surd Or Deaf, and Consequently Dumb, to Speak

Thornton, Short Account of the Origin of Steamboats Written in 1810 and Now Committee to the Press, 1814  

Thornton,  William, "Political Economy: Founded in Justice and Humanity, in a letter to a friend" 1804

Townsend, Washington Outside and Inside, 1873, pp. 56-60. Google Books

Trimble, William F., High Frontier: History of Aeronautics in Pennsylvania, U. of Pitt. Press 1982 p. 5

  Letters of John Trumbull

, Life of John Trumbull

 Twining, Travels in America a Hundred Years Ago, p. 102ff

U. S. Congress, Ex. Doc. 59, p. 83, 30th Congress 2nd Session

U. S. Congress   House Report on Public Lots; n. 397

U. S. Congressional serial set. 5407, p. 775  public building lot ownership

Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Redlands

Walker, Paul, Engineers of Independence, GPO 1981, pp353ff

Warder, Ann, Extracts from diary of Ann Warder (concluded) JSTOR and in Internet Archive,

Washington Chronicles, web page on Kalorama/Rock Hill

 
Weld, Isaac, Travels Through the States of North America, vol. 2, 1799

Westcott,Thompson,  John Fitch Inventor of the Steamboat, 1857.

Wolcott, Oliver, Administration of John Adams, vol. 2


Newspapers

Alexandria Daily Advertiser, vol. 4, no. 1060, page 4 11 August 1804

Gazette of the United States, February 11, 12, 13; Federal Orrery, Feb 16, 1795; Washington Gazette September 23, 26, November 19, December 7, 1796. Read on-line at www.rarenewspapers 

Washington Gazette, 21 October 1797

Boston Gazette 5 February 1798, quoted in Beginnings of Washington, p 10. 

Natl. Intelligencer January 23, 1800  National Intelligencer, 5 January 1801, National Intelligencer 5 April 1802 p. 3 ; National Intelligencer March 21, 1804, p. 4.   Norwich Courier 8 October 1800; National Intelligencer 8 December 1800. 

Norwich Courier 8 October 1800; National Intelligencer 8 December 1800. 

Court Cases

Pratt v. Law, No. 659, , US Supreme Court, 9 Cranch 456 pp. 779ff

United States v. Morris 174 U.S. 196 (1899) p. 2463.

Bickley v. Blodget;

Thornton v. Carson's Executor, Google Books 

Thornton v. Wynn 25 US 183  

 

Sources not used

I was unable to use the Tayloe Papers in Richmond, nor refresh my recollection of Thornton's papers in the Library of Congress manuscript division. The will of Thornton's Great Uncle James Birket is likely extant in England and thus would inform us of Thornton's Lancaster estate. Lettsom corresponded with Thornton after 1797 and it is a pity that those letters are lost. In her diary and notebooks, Mrs. Thornton noted letters to and from her husband's relatives in Tortola and England but evidently those letters are missing. Thornton or his wife or their executors obviously culled his letters. Since most of them probably pertained to his personal financial difficulties that is understandable. However, in the context of the fates of Blodget, Morris, Nicholson, Greenleaf and many others, Thornton's ability to avoid bankruptcy is a mark in his favor. Those missing letters likely detail his genius in that regard.