Thornton, Thomas C, Dd

Thornton, Thomas C., D.D.

a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was born in Dumfries, Va., Oct. 12, 1794; graduated in his native place, and began to preach when sixteen years old. In 1813 he entered the Baltimore Conference; and was transferred to the Mississippi Conference to take charge of Old Centenary College in 1841. From some misunderstanding, he left the Methodist and joined the Protestant Episcopal Church, but refused ordination not accepting the doctrine of uninterrupted apostolical succession. In 1850 he returned to the Methodist Church, and was readmitted into the Mississippi Conference in 1853. He died March 22, 1860. He wrote Theological Colloquies and Slavery as it is in the United States, in reply to Dr. Channing. See Simpson, Cyclop. of Methodism, s.v.