Footnotes

Literature:
Colonel Thornton, A Sporting Tour Through Various Parts Of France, In The Year 1802, 1806, pp. 68, 75-76 and 126, pl. 20.A. 'Three-barrelled pistol, presented to the First Consul by the author'
Wilfrid Ward, 'The Under And Over Pistols Of Durs Egg And Joseph Egg', Man at Arms, volume eight, number six (November/December 1986), pp. 27 (for two illustrations of the pair to this pistol) and 34-5
Arthur G. Credland, 'Colonel Thornton's coach gun and other weapons, with notes on the career of a great Yorkshire Sportsman', Arms & Armour, volume 2, number 2 (2005), p. 169

Thomas Thornton (1757-1823), self-styled Prince of Chambord and Marquess de Pont, is famous for being one of the most dedicated and flamboyant sportsman of the 18th and 19th centuries, dividing his time between hunting, racing, shooting, angling and hawking. In the shooting field he was certainly the best equipped - in his words he had 'a greater quantity of sporting apparatus of the most valuable and curious manufacture than any other sporting gentleman in England' - and he favoured air weapons and multi-barrelled guns and rifles, including examples with seven, twelve and fourteen barrels (the second of these depicted in the portrait of him painted in 1790 by Philip Reinagle and Sawrey Gilpin, the last preserved in the Arms Museum, Liège, no. Ael/5866). He was also a significant patron of sporting artists, his collection including pictures by Rubens and Van Dyck was auctioned to pay his debts in London in 1817

In 1794 a dispute arose at Roborough Camp, near Plymouth, between Thornton and some of his officers. This was to lead to Thornton's court-martial and subsequent resignation as described in his pamphlet entitled 'An Elucidation of a Mutinous Conspiracy entered into by the officers of the West York Regiment of Militia against their Commanding Officer in year 1794'

A Francophile, Thornton visited France with his mistress before the revolution and again in 1802 on a sporting journey afforded during the brief peace created by the Treaty of Amiens following Napoleon's brilliant defeat of the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo, fought on 14 June, 1800. It seems entirely probable that the incident with his regiment (of which his father, an MP for York, had financed and commanded before him) which deeply affected him, acted as the incentive for Thornton to make his presentation to Napoleon in an effort to gain support to establish his version as the truth and thereby regain his reputation. In his Sporting Tour Through France Thornton describes writing to General Duroc, Napoleon's aide-de-camp, gaining an interview and 'After some conversation relative to my friend Beaumont and his introductory letter, I produced the pistols designed for the First Consul. The general then enquired the name of my regiment, with the particulars of which I acquainted him, as well as the manner of my quitting it; after which we parted mutually satisfied with each other.' He goes on to say 'In a few days I was favoured with a letter from General Duroc, containing the thanks of the First Consul for the pistols, which had been very graciously accepted; and also informing me that both he (the general) and Bonaparte, had perused my "Statement of Facts" [almost certainly his pamphlet (see above) describing his court-martial and subsequent resignation from his regiment]. The gold-inlaid decoration was clearly intended to confirm Thornton's feeling of admiration for the First Consul to whom he was presented at the Tuileries together with the Portuguese ambassador and several English naval and military gentlemen. Their meeting was to provide a further opportunity of explaining the virtues of the men once under his command and all the implied regret caused by the untimely separation from them. 'He (Napoleon) noticed my medallion, and enquired the meaning of it. I told him, the legend was Triumph of Truth and that the medallion had been presented to me by the soldiers of the West York. Militia, when I was Lieutenant Colonel of that regiment, as a testimony of their esteem for myself and family'

Thornton is also famous for his succession of mistresses, the first being Alicia Meynell or Massingham known as the 'Norwich Nymph' and famous in her own right for her horse race against Captain Flint at York racecourse in 1804, and again in 1805 on the Knavesmire when she beat Edward Buckle the crack jockey of his day

For a full account of Thornton's career see the new edition of The Dictionary of National Biography