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HULL SCIENTIFIC AND FIELD NATURALISTS CLUB. 



The third William Wilberforce, whose memory is im- 

 perishable, imbibed from his near relatives, the Thorntons, 

 the principles of religion and philanthropy which he upheld 

 with all the energy of his life. But, with the Thorntons, 

 those principles were hereditary and inbred. London 

 merchants and bankers of the highest standing, Directors 

 of the Bank of England, Chairmen of great commercial 

 associations, leading authorities on finance, and the trusted 

 advisers of Chancellors of the Exchequer, they kept in touch, 

 by business and by marriages, with the town from which 

 they sprang. Of such were John Thornton, "the philan- 







THE SUGAR HOUSE AS A WAREHOUSE. 



thropist," whose benefactions were "more than princely," 

 Samuel Thornton, who represented Hull in four Parliaments, 

 but suffered in a great commercial crisis, John Thornton, 

 his son, who took upon himself the inherited burden, Henry 

 Thornton — the cousin and closest friend of Wilberforce — 

 a man of boundless generosity, and Henry Sykes Thornton, 

 "a king of men." The threatening ruins that tower over 

 Lime Street are their monument. 



One of the houses built by the Thorntons still remains. 

 It was probably the residence of Benjamin Pead, soap maker, 

 and from 1846 to 1865 was the parsonage of the Rev. John 

 Scott, the vicar of St. Mary's. It is a good example of an 

 eighteenth century town house. 



