The following comes from web site Descendants of William Thorne from: http://thorn.pair.com/williamthorne1/d48.htm#P48 William Thorne was born about 1617 in England. He was admitted freeman on 2 May 1638 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He died between 1657 and 1664 in Jamaica, Queens, NY. He signed the Remonstrance on 27 Dec 1657 in Flushing, Long Island, NY. "Another of the combination father and son signers of the Remonstrance was the Thorne family; William Sr. and William Jr." Like so many of his friends and neighbors William Thorne Sr. followed the pathway to Flushing in order to escape the religious intolerances of his earlier New England associations. The first New England reference to William Thorne is that of his admittance as a freeman to Lynn, Massachusetts on May 2, 1638 having (possibly) arrived that year in the ship Confidence from England. (But he is not on the published passenger list of that ship.) He is also shown to have served on a Salem jury on June 29, 1641. Shortly thereafter he was convicted of giving assistance to escaped prisoners and was fined 6 & 2/3 shillings for "concealing, hiding and supplying." This display of sympathy toward non-conformists and antipathy toward existing authorities presaged an early departure from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. ___________________ There is a lot more on William Thorne, but the above serves to illustrate that he came from England to New England about 1638 and was a resident of Lynn, Mass. Bay Colony, prior to removing to Flushing/Jamaica, Queens, NY, for religious reasons. The Thornes of Long Island and lower New York State seem to be descendants of this person. Some of his descendants removed to Yonkers, Westchester, NY, and northern NJ. G. David Thayer Salem, OR USA