Career
He sat in the House of Commons from 1853 to 1865. Many of the houses in the village carry the initials "WPT". Thornhill became High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1836.
As a politician he was a strong reformist and built the Earl Grey Tower on the eastern edge of Stanton Moor dedicated to the Reform Acting 1832.
He was briefly, between 1860 and 1863, a lieutenant in the 9th Derbyshire Rifle Volunteers. He died at Brighton at the beginning of 1876.
Thornhill married Isabella Gell at Wirksworth in 1828. Isabella was the heiress of Hopton Hall.
They took the name Gell according to the terms of inheritance and lived briefly at Hopton Hall but in due course renounced the inheritance.
