Sir Thomas Thornton
Credit: Dundee Art Galleries and Museums

There was a time when solicitors were often referred to as writers, procurators, law agents or advocates (as in Aberdeen) and also more simply as men of business. The difference was not merely nominal or a matter of choice: there appears to have been a group of what are now referred to as solicitors whose professional business went beyond the narrow, or what might be called the technical, side of legal practice. They were in fact practitioners of outsourced government, and demonstrated entrepreneurship, with risk-based activities with commercial outcomes.

Thomas Thornton was born in Forfar in 1829, attending the burgh school. At the age of 15 he started work in a solicitor’s office in Edinburgh and also attend law classes at the university there. During that time he also spent some time in the offices of the secretary to the North British Railway Company, which led to important connections for years afterwards.

Thornton was considered a brilliant student, but some health problems thwarted his ambition to train for the Scottish bar. He was able continue to qualify as a solicitor and did so. In 1851 at the age of 21 he became managing clerk in the office of Christopher Kerr, one of Dundee’s principal solicitors. Thornton remained there for six years, a time when Kerr was ‘conjunct’ Town Clerk, with another local solicitor. Thornton at the very least would have had some insight into local government then and its relationship to central authority, as well as the workings of the market for legal work.

In 1857 James Pattullo, who was a decade or so older than Thornton, had been in partnership with another who left Dundee. He and Thornton entered into a legal partnership, and the firm of Pattullo and Thornton operated from 1 Bank Street, Dundee and established themselves as one of the leading law firms in Dundee over the next 25 years with a large private family business.

The firm also acted as agents for the Caledonian Insurance Company, and the English and Scottish Law Life Assurance Company. The partnership retained the position as agents to the Dundee Cemetery Company, of which Pattullo was a chairman. Thornton became clerk to the Forfarshire Prison Board about 1857 and also became legal adviser to the North British Railway Company in Dundee sometime in the early 1860s.

In 1863 a meeting took place in Thornton’s office to plan the bridging of the Tay at Dundee and, with the support of the North British Railway Company, the project began to be realised. In an obituary in the Scottish Law Review, Thornton was described as having first conceived of the idea of such a bridge and to having “initiated and carried through all the earlier bills incidental to this great undertaking”.

After the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, Thornton handled, on behalf of the company, the compensation claims for the relatives of the victims and settled all of them out of court. As a result of his reaching compromise on claims, none arising from the collapse went to court. This approach was beneficial to the railway company: “the total compensation paid was probably less than the expenses of a few litigants”.

Patullo and Thornton had other commitments: Thornton became the first clerk to the Dundee Gas Commission in 1868 and had to negotiate the transfer of the gas works from private to public control, a task occasioned, it was said, with much acrimony. He was appointed clerk to Dundee Police Board and Police Commissioners in 1870 at a time when a great many civic improvement schemes were contemplated and it proved to be a position which allowed him to demonstrate his skill in drafting bills and successfully piloting them through parliamentary committees.

As with the difficult negotiations for the gas supply, Thornton was instrumental in the transfer of the water supply to public control and also responsible for acquiring the Loch of Lintrathen on favourable terms to put an end to the so-called ‘water war’ which had bedevilled Dundee for many years. He was also made the first clerk of the newly-formed Dundee School Board in 1873, assessor to the Judges of the Police Court in 1874, a director of the Prison Aid Society in 1874, a justice of the peace connected with the Dundee district in 1876.

The partnership of Thomas Thornton and James Pattullo ended in 1881, probably as a result of a pre-arranged commitment to the business for a specified term. Thornton formed the new firm of Thomas Thornton, Son, and Company, with his son, William. He established the new business with, as managing clerk from Pattullo and Thornton, James Burnet. This new firm set up office at 15 Albert Square, Dundee. Pattullo had been born in 1818  but he was still engaged in business as he was joined by his nephew, Henry A. Pattullo, in the new firm of J and H Pattullo which carried on business from 1 Bank Street, Dundee.

Thomas Thornton, Son, and Company continued the connection with the Caledonian Insurance Company, the English and Scottish Law Life Assurance Company and the Northern Assurance Fire and Life Insurance Company, by acting as their agents and also took on further agencies for Northern Marine Insurance Company briefly, and Queen (Fire and Life) Assurance Company.

Thornton’s new firm took with it from the previous firm the representation of the Dundee Mortgage and Trust Investments Company, and the Dundee Land Investment Company, and afterwards becoming the solicitors for the newly-formed Alliance Trust Company Limited.

Thornton continued to accumulate a wide range of responsibilities: temporary sheriff substitute, 1884-1889 and honorary sheriff substitute, 1890-1903; clerk to the Visiting Committee for Dundee Prison, 1884-1903 and clerk to the Forfarshire Lunacy Board, 1887-1903.

Along with these official posts, Thornton also became an honorary vice president of the Dundee Boys and Girls Religious Association, 1882-1887, becoming its president, 1887-1889 and he served as a director of the Dundee Mission to the Outdoor Blind, 1882-1903.

He was an active supporter of the Liberal Party appearing on local political platforms for many years, and for a short while in the late 1870s acted as honorary secretary of the Dundee Liberal Association. He further showed his commitment to the Liberal Party as agent for George Armitstead who became MP for Dundee in 1880. Thornton was also asked to run for Parliament for the Montrose Burghs and Dundee in 1885, but declined the offer.