1660-1721
Attorney General of New York, 1691
Thomas Newton was born in England on June 10, 1660, and entered the legal profession before arriving in Massachusetts on June 7, 1688. The following day, he was sworn in as an attorney in the Dominion of New England.
When Governor Henry Sloughter arrived in New York in 1691, he immediately appointed Thomas Newton to the office of New York Attorney General and Newton began preparations for the treason trials of Jacob Leisler and his associates. Following the trials, Newton traveled to Boston to retrieve the New York Provincial records that had been taken to the Dominion of New England by Governor Edmund Andros. Newton extended his stay in Boston to attend to the extensive legal practice he had built in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and Governor Sloughter replaced him as Attorney General by appointing George Farewell to the office on April 17, 1691.
Although Newton was not regarded as a skilled lawyer, his legal career flourished and he held several public offices in the New England colonies.
Thomas Newton died in New Hampshire on May 28, 1721.
Source
Paul Hamlin and Charles Baker. The Supreme Court of the Province of New York, 1691-1704 (1959).