Biography

Thomas Chapman Thornton (1794-1860) was an educator and Methodist minister. Born in Dumfries, Virginia, he is the son of Thomas Thornton and Jane Carr Chapman Thornton. He became a Methodist Episcopal Church minister serving churches in the Baltimore Conference (1813-1841). During the 1820s, he also worked for a collegiate institute in Northumberland, Virginia. During the 1830s, he was employed by Dickerson and/or Dickinson College. From 1841 to 1844, he served as the first president of Centenary College (Brandon Springs, Miss.). He withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1845 to join the Protestant Episcopal Church, then joined the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1850. Following Thornton’s employment at Centenary College, he helped organize and serve as president of other colleges in central Mississippi: College in Jackson (Jackson, Miss.) from 1845-circa 1846, Brandon College (Brandon, Miss.) from 1847-1851, and Madison College (Sharon, Miss.) from 1851 to 1860. Thornton was the author of the pro-slavery book “An inquiry into the history of slavery; its introduction into the United States; causes of its continuance; and remarks upon the abolition tracts of William E. Channing, D.D” (Washington City: William M. Morrison, 1841).

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