Career
Henry was also mentioned frequently in the correspondence of Wilson with other literary notables, such as Vladimir Nabokov. In the journals, Wilson wrote a detailed, uncensored account, including rather graphic descriptions of his sex life with wife Elena Mumm Thornton Wilson. Wilson did not spare Henry, of whom he was reportedly very fond.
Wilson reflected on Henry’s difficulty in providing adequate income to support a ‘society’ family, Henry’s wife Daphne’s anti-Semitism, and the strained relationship of Elena and Daphne.
How much of this was Wilson’s perception of reality or reality has never been determined. A copy of Henry Her Majesty Thornton’s birth certificate and Thornton family correspondence are stored with the Elena Wilson Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Collection of American Literature, Yale University.
After graduating from Saint Paul"s preparatory school in Concord, New Hampshire and serving two years in the United States Armed Forces, Henry Her Majesty Thornton entered Columbia University, graduating in 1958. He spent the next 30 years in banking: By the mid-1980s, Henry was senior vice president of First Jersey National Bank, Jersey City, New Jersey.
Henry Her Majesty Thornton was the son of James Worth Thornton and Elena Mumm Thornton, a German-Russian aristocrat and partial heir to the Mumm champagne fortune.
Henry was the grandson of Sir Henry Worth Thornton. Henry has a half-sister from Elena’s second marriage: Helen Miranda Wilson b. 1948. In 1957 Henry married Daphne Sellar, from a prominent Newport, Rhode Island, family.
Henry and Daphne had three daughters: twins, Sandra Christine and Elena Martha, and Nina Rosalie.
In 1986 Sandra Thornton married Sheldon Whitehouse, who currently serves as United States Senator from Rhode Island. In 1985 Elena Thornton married Michael Case Kissel, a producer and musician and 3rd-great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Henry and Deborah had one son, James Speno Mumm.
