[1] Because his parents died when he was seven years old, a family friend ensured the education at Christ's Hospital for Thornton and his four brothers.
Thomas's education prepared him for a career in one of the most important English trading houses of the time.
In about 1793 he was sent to the British factory at Constantinople, where he resided fourteen years, making a stay of fifteen months at Odessa, and paying frequent visits to Asia Minor and the islands of the Archipelago.
About the end of 1813 Thornton was appointed consul to the Levant Company, but when on the eve of setting out for Alexandria he died at Burnham, Buckinghamshire, on 28 March 1814.
1809), in which, after a summary of Ottoman history, he gave an account of the political and social institutions of the Turkish empire.