The origin story of the Alice Thornton's Books project. #EarlyModern 🗃️ 📜 📚

ATthorntonsbooks.bsky.socialSep 27, 2024 11:00am

If Alice Thornton is your ancestor, get in touch, it's Ancestor Appreciation Day! Our project began when her descendant, the late Patrick Comber, took her Book of Remembrances to the pub to show friends, including @cordeliabeattie.bsky.social's dad! What came next?... https://buff.ly/3TEgjnF

If Alice Thornton is your ancestor, get in touch, it's Ancestor Appreciation Day! Our project began when her descendant, the late Patrick Comber, took her Book of Remembrances to the pub to show friends, including @cordeliabeattie.bsky.socialhttps://buff.ly/3TEgjnF

#OTD 23 Sept. 1656 Alice Thornton’s 8th child, Joyce, was born at East Newton about 4 o’clock in the afternoon; ‘it pleased the Lord to make me happy in a goodly strong child, a daughter, after an exceedingly sharp & perilous time’ (Book 1). Image: Baby in lace costume, 17th C. Anglo-Dutch school

In *Book 2* Thornton adds, 'The fuller description is related in my book of meditations on this subject and also of the First Book of My Life, page 203'. The latter is *Book 1* and can be found around p.203. But the former seems to be a tantalising nod to another Thornton book. 📚 #BookHistory 📜 🗃️

ATthorntonsbooks.bsky.socialSep 20, 2024 12:06pm

20 Sept. 1662 #OTD Thornton’s 7th child, Robert, was baptised by Mr Lowcock in her chamber at East Newton Hall. His godparents were Dr Robert Wittie (who treated Thornton during pregnancy), Henry Best (her nephew-in-law) and Katherine Cholmley (who assisted at the birth). #EarlyModern 🗃️ #HistChild

Image: East Newton Hall, Oswaldkirk, North Yorkshire. (Roger Smith / East Newton Hall / CC BY-SA 2.0).

20 Sept. 1662 #OTD#EarlyModern#HistChild

Robert was one of Alice Thornton's three children to survive into adulthood (of 9 births). He was the last of the Thorntons at East Newton, Ryedale, with the property passing into the Comber hands (although Thornton stayed there until her death in 1707). #EarlyModern 🗃️

ATthorntonsbooks.bsky.socialSep 19, 2024 1:35pm

19 Sept. 1662 Thornton’s 7th child, Robert, was born #OTD ‘at East Newton between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock at night having been since the night before in strong labour with him’ (Book 2). He died in 1692. 🗃️ Image: Memorial to Robert Thornton in Durham Cathedral. Photograph: Cordelia Beattie.

Thank you!

Such an evocatively eloquent post, both words and image (like everything from @thorntonsbooks.bsky.social come to think of it).

ATthorntonsbooks.bsky.socialSep 19, 2024 1:35pm

19 Sept. 1662 Thornton’s 7th child, Robert, was born #OTD ‘at East Newton between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock at night having been since the night before in strong labour with him’ (Book 2). He died in 1692. 🗃️ Image: Memorial to Robert Thornton in Durham Cathedral. Photograph: Cordelia Beattie.

19 Sept. 1662 Thornton’s 7th child, Robert, was born #OTD ‘at East Newton between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock at night having been since the night before in strong labour with him’ (Book 2). He died in 1692. 🗃️ Image: Memorial to Robert Thornton in Durham Cathedral. Photograph: Cordelia Beattie.