THORNTON, Eliza B, poet, born in North Hampton, New Hampshire, 23 July. 1795; died in Saco, Maine, 27 July, 1854. She was a direct descendant of General Daniel Gookin, and married James B. Thornton, of Scarboro, Maine, on 20 January, 1817. Mrs. Thornton was for many years a contributor of poetry to the "Southern Literary Messenger," the "Christian Mirror," and other periodicals. Her best-known piece is " Tile Mayflower."--Her son, John Win-gate, historian, born in Saco, Maine, 12 August, 1818; died there, 6 June, 1878, was graduated at the Harvard law-school in 1840, and practised in Boston, Massachusetts He was a founder of the New England historic-genealogical society, and has been vice-president of the American statistic association and of the Prince publication society. He is the author of "Genealogical Memoir of the Gilbert Family in both Old and New England" (printed privately, Boston, 1850);"Lives of Isaac Heath and John Bowles, and of Reverend John Eliot, Jr." (printed privately, Roxbury, 1850); " Mementoes of the Swell Family" (printed privately, 1851); "The Landing at Cape Anne, or the Charter of the First Permanent Colony on the Territory of the Massachusetts Company, now Discovered and first Published from the Original Manuscript, with an Inquiry into its Authority, and a History of the Colony, 1624-1628 " (Boston, 1854) ; "Ancient Pemaquid : an Historical Review" (printed privately, Portland, 1857) ; "Peter Oliver's ' Puritan Commonwealth' Reviewed" (Boston, 1857) ; " The First Records of Anglo-American Colonization: their History" (printed privately, Boston, 1859) ; "The Pulpit of the American Revolution, or the Political Sermons of the Period of 1776, with an Historical Introduction, Notes, and Illustrations" (Boston, 1860); " Colonial Schemes of Popham and Gorges," being a speech at the Popham celebration (Boston, 1863); and "The Historical Relation of New England to the English Commonwealth " (printed privately, Boston, 1874).