wife. Once in Essex County, Thornton was jailed briefly while a formal request for his return was issued by the Michigan territorial governor. A reply came from the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Major General Sir John Colborne, who refused extradition to the United States, noting that a person could not steal himself and that lifetime slavery was too severe a punishment for any crime less than murder. Toronto In 1834, Thornton reunited with his wife Lucie in the newly incorporated City of Toronto, where he worked as a waiter at Osgoode Hall. Together, they lived on Eastern Avenue for the next half century. Thornton created Toronto's first taxi service in 1837, named "The City". Though illiterate, he saw the need for a taxi service and so obtained blueprints for a cab from Montreal and commissioned its construction. He started this service by building a red and yellow box cab named "The City," drawn by a single horse and able to carry four passengers, with a driver in a box at the front, which he would operate. It became the nucleus of a successful taxicab company. Some time in the late 1830s, Thornton made a daring return to Kentucky to bring his mother, Mubby (born in Virginia), back with him to join another son, Alfred, Thornton's brother, who may have arrived in Toronto as early as 1826. The Blackburns continued to be active in anti-slavery and community activities, helping to build the nearby Little Trinity Church, now the oldest-surviving church in Toronto. Thornton participated in the North American Convention of Colored Freemen at St. Lawrence Hall in September 1851, was an associate of anti-slavery leader George Brown, and helped former slaves settle at Toronto and Buxton. The Blackburns took in African American freedom seekers, including Ann Maria Jackson and her seven children in 1858. The youngest child, Albert, became the first black postman of Toronto. When immigrants came to Toronto, many settled in St. John's Ward. The Blackburns built six homes there that they rented out at nominal rates for former enslaved people. Thornton died on February 26, 1890, leaving an estate of $18,000 and six properties, and is buried at Toronto's Necropolis Cemetery. Lucie died five years later, on February 6, 1895. ! Legacy In 1999, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated the Blackburns "Persons of National Historic Significance" for their personal struggle for freedom, which was