William Thornton Re-examined by Bob Arnebeck

Chapter One: A Tale of Two Properties by Bob Arnebeck     Table of Contents     In 1753, William Thornton's father, also named William, arrived in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. Like many Quakers in Lancashire, England, west of Manchester and flanking the Irish Sea, he was brought up to be a merchant. His uncle James Birket had made a fortune based in Antigua and likely encouraged him to go to Tortola because it had a Quaker community that Birket helped found. Marriage vows in 1757 gained the emigrant Thornton plantation land and slaves that came with a Quaker wife named Dorcas Downing Zeagers whose sister was married to John Pickering, the richest man on the island and also a Quaker. On that small island, 3 miles by 12 miles, 10,000 slaves worked for and served 1,000 whites. At that time, Quakers could own slaves. William Thornton was born in May 1759. Thornton's father died soon after his second son Absalom was born in 1760. In 1764, William and Absalom were se...