James D. Thornton

Thornton was born January 19, 1823, at Oak Hill in Cumberland, Virginia, to William Mynn Thornton and Elizabeth Anderson.[1][2] He studied at the University of Virginia, graduating in 1841.[2] After college, he read law for a year and then worked three years in a commercial house in Richmond, Virginia, while continuing his legal studies.[2] In November 1848, he and his wife moved to Eutaw, Alabama, where his wife's father, Harry Innis Thornton Sr., was a judge and member of the Alabama Legislature.[3] By 1851, Harry I. Thornton had moved to California and was appointed to the federal Public Land Commission to address property ownership in California.[4] In 1854, James Thornton also determined to move to California, arriving in San Francisco in June 1854.[5] There, he started a law firm with his father-in-law and John James Williams, whom he had befriended in Richmond, Virginia.[6]

In 1856, Thornton served as a district court commissioner for the Fourth district court in San Francisco.[7] In August 1858, he was nominated by the Democratic Lecompton Party for judge of the Fourth district court.[8]

In June 1861, he attended the state convention of the Breckenridge Democratic Party, with pro-Southern sympathies.[9] During the Civil War, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, as did Solomon Heydenfeldt, who was born in Charleston, South Carolina.[10][2] At that time, his wife's brother, the attorney Harry Innis Thornton Jr., gave a speech on the floor of the California State Senate defending the Southern states' rights to succeed, and afterwards left to fight for the Confederacy.[11]

In 1878, James Thornton was appointed judge of the Twenty-third district court by Governor William Irwin.[12][13]

In 1879, when adoption of a new constitution required elections for all seats on the Supreme Court, Thornton was nominated by both the Democratic Party and Workingman's Party and was elected.[14][15][16][17] The newly elected judges drew lots to determine the length of term, and Thornton drew an 11-year term, the same length as Elisha W. McKinstry.[18][19] In November 1890, just prior to the end of his term, he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for judge of San Francisco County Superior Court.[20][21] Instead, after stepping down from the high court he returned to private practice.[2]

He died September 27, 1902, in San Francisco.[13][22]

On February 17, 1848, he married Sarah Frances Thornton[23][24] in Eutaw, Alabama, and they had eleven children, including six who lived to adulthood: Crittenden Thornton, a lawyer in San Francisco;[25][26] Harry I. Thornton, Jr., who graduated from Hastings College of the Law;[26] Elizabeth Anderson 'Lizzy' Thornton (Mrs. John Crittenden Watson, an admiral); William M. Thornton, a banker in Montana and later businessman in Chicago;[27][28] Margaret Thornton (Mrs. Abbott Kinney of Santa Monica); and John Thurston Thornton, also a lawyer in San Francisco. Two other daughters died before adulthood: Ann Mary Thornton (1851–1870) and Gertrude Thornton (1855–1877).

• James D. Thornton. California Supreme Court Historical Society.
• "Past and Present Justices". California State Courts. Retrieved July 10, 2017.

• List of justices of the Supreme Court of California