Robert Thorne (explorer)

Last updated
Robert Thorne
Bornc.1460
DiedBefore July 1519
Bristol
Occupationmerchant
Known forExploration of North America
Spouse(s)Johane Withypoll (c.1491-1519), d. 1523
ChildrenRobert Thorne the younger, Elyn, Nicholas, Catherine, Alice
Parent(s)Thomas Thorne (d.1471), Rose

Robert Thorne the elder (d.1519) was a fifteenth-century Bristol merchant who was involved in the port's early Atlantic exploration voyages to North America. He was identified in the sixteenth century as one of the English 'discoverers of the Newfound Landes'. [1] [2]

Contents

Early Life

Robert Thorne was the fourth son of Thomas Thorne of St Albans (d.1471). [3]

Thorne is first mentioned in the Bristol customs accounts of 1479-80, carrying sugar from Lisbon and small quantities of wine and woad dye from Bordeaux. [4] He is not recorded as a merchant in the surviving accounts of the 1470s. [5] [6] [7] His absence from the earlier accounts, followed by small scale trading and a marriage c.1490, might imply that he was born c.1460.

Thorne married Johane Withypoll with whom he had five children, Robert Thorne the younger (1492-1532), Elyn, Nicholas (1496-1546), Catherine and Alice. [8]

Atlantic exploration

Thorne's son, Robert Thorne the younger, claimed in a 1527 letter to Henry VIII that it was his father, along with another Bristol merchant called Hugh Eliot, who were 'the discoverers of the Newfound Landes'. [9] Writing in 1578, Queen Elizabeth's chief advisor on scientific matters, John Dee, claimed that Robert Thorne and Hugh Eliot made this discovery in 1494. [10] However, it is not clear whether Dee had any evidence for this. [11] It has often been assumed that Thorne and Eliot were involved in John Cabot's expeditions from the city from 1496-98, since it is known that Bristol merchants accompanied the 1497 expedition that resulted in the European discovery, or rediscovery, of North America. [12]

Thorne's involvement in the Bristol exploration voyages of the years 1501-5, along with his brother, William, and his business partner, Hugh Eliot, is better documented. [13] On 7 January 1502, William Thorne, Robert Thorne and Hugh Eliot received a reward from Henry VII for buying a ship from Dieppe, which they renamed the Gabriel of Bristol. [14] This immediately followed on from a personal reward by the king ‘men of Bristolle that founde thisle’. [15] The Gabriel was subsequently used for expeditions to Newfoundland in 1502 and 1504. [16] Thorne, along with Hugh Eliot were very likely two of ‘the merchauntes of bristoll that have bene in the newe founde landes’, who were given a £20 reward by the King in late September 1502. [17]

Hugh Eliot and Thorne seem to have been the principal organisers of the 1504 voyage from Bristol to the new found land, on which Sebastian Cabot (John Cabot's son) served as a pilot. Thorne did not, however, take part in the 1504 voyage personally, since he was called on to serve as a Sheriff of Bristol at the start of 1504, following the unexpected death of Richard Ap Merike, one of the serving sheriffs. [18]

Later life and death

Thorne continued to trade as a merchant to European destinations during the period of the Bristol discovery voyages. In the 1503/4 customs accounts for Bristol he traded goods valued at £395 10s., mostly to Andalusia, but also to Biscay for iron and wine from Bordeaux. [19] In the accounts for 1516/17, he was trading exclusively to Sanlúcar in Andalusia, sometimes alongside his son, Nicholas, exporting English woollen cloth and importing wine and dyestuffs. [20]

In 1510 Thorne was appointed to a commission of the Admiralty in connection with trade to Portugal and in 1514-15 he served as Mayor of Bristol. [21] In 1518, as an alderman (former mayor) and steward of Bristol, Thorne was appointed to go to London to represent the corporation in a dispute being heard in Star Chamber. [22] It seems he died while on this assignment and was buried there in the Temple Church, near Fleet Street before July 1519. [23] The text of his epitaph was printed by Richard Hakluyt, the sixteenth-century historian of English discoveries. [24] The epitaph confirms that Robert Thorne the elder served as 'praetor' (mayor) of Bristol. Some later chroniclers claimed that it was his son, Robert Thorne the younger (b.1492), who was mayor. [25] However, the younger Robert would have been only 23 in 1514. No contemporary documents suggest he was mayor.

Robert Thorne the elder's last will and testament was written 20 Jan 1518 and proved on 6 July 1519. [26] Although his will requested burial in the crypt of St Nicholas Church, Bristol he died whilst on business in London in 1519 and was buried there. Thorne was clearly a rich merchant, leaving £200 in cash and 200 oz. silver plate to his wife, among other goods and £60 in cash and 60 oz. in silver plate to each of his three surviving children, Robert, Nicholas and Alice. He also made substantial bequests to the Church and other charitable causes around Bristol. [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Frobisher</span> English seaman and privateer (1535–1594)

Sir Martin Frobisher was an English sailor and privateer who made three voyages to the New World looking for the North-west Passage. He probably sighted Resolution Island near Labrador in north-eastern Canada, before entering Frobisher Bay and landing on present-day Baffin Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni da Verrazzano</span> Florentine explorer of North America for France (1485–1528)

Giovanni da Verrazzano was an Italian (Florentine) explorer of North America, who led most of his later expeditions, including the one to America, in the service of King Francis I of France.

Richard ap Meryk, anglicised to Richard Amerike was a British merchant, royal customs officer and later, sheriff of Bristol. Several claims have been made for Amerike by popular writers of the late twentieth century. One was that he was the major funder of the voyage of exploration launched from Bristol by the Venetian John Cabot in 1497, and that Amerike was the owner of Cabot's ship, the Matthew. The other claim revived a theory first proposed in 1908 by a Bristolian scholar and amateur historian, Alfred Hudd. Hudd's theory, greatly elaborated by later writers, suggested that the continental name America was derived from Amerike's surname in gratitude for his sponsorship of Cabot's successful discovery expedition to 'the new World'. However, neither claim is backed up by hard evidence, and the consensus view is that America is named after Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">16th century in Canada</span>

The 16th century in Canada saw the first contacts, since the Norsemen 500 years earlier, between the indigenous peoples in Canada living near the Atlantic coast and European fishermen, whalers, traders, and explorers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sebastian Cabot (explorer)</span> Venetian explorer (c. 1474 – c.1557)

Sebastian Cabot was a Venetian explorer, likely born in the Venetian Republic and a Venetian citizen. He was the son of Venetian explorer John Cabot and his Venetian wife Mattea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Bristol</span>

Bristol is a city with a population of nearly half a million people in south west England, situated between Somerset and Gloucestershire on the tidal River Avon. It has been among the country's largest and most economically and culturally important cities for eight centuries. The Bristol area has been settled since the Stone Age and there is evidence of Roman occupation. A mint was established in the Saxon burgh of Brycgstow by the 10th century and the town rose to prominence in the Norman era, gaining a charter and county status in 1373. The change in the form of the name 'Bristol' is due to the local pronunciation of 'ow' as 'ol'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Chancellor</span> English explorer and navigator (c. 1521 – 1556)

Richard Chancellor was an English explorer and navigator; the first to penetrate to the White Sea and establish relations with the Tsardom of Russia.

The Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands was an early joint stock association, which began with private exploration and enterprise, and was to have been incorporated by King Edward VI in 1553, but received its full royal charter in 1555. It led to the commencement of English trade with Russia, Persia and elsewhere, and became known informally, and later formally, as the Muscovy Company.

Fr. (Brother) Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis was an Augustinian Friar from Milan who served in London as envoy between the Duke of Milan and King Henry VII. He is known to have sailed with John Cabot during his 1498 expedition to North America. He may have founded a mission settlement and North America's oldest church at Carbonear, Newfoundland and Labrador.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cabot</span> Italian navigator and explorer (c. 1450 – c. 1500)

John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 voyage to the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII, King of England is the earliest known European exploration of coastal North America since the Norse visits to Vinland in the eleventh century. To mark the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Cabot's expedition, both the Canadian and British governments declared Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland as representing Cabot's first landing site. However, alternative locations have also been proposed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Lucar</span> British artist (1510–1537)

Elizabeth Lucar was an English calligrapher. In addition to her calligraphic skills she was fluent in Latin, Spanish, and Italian, and was an accomplished musician, needleworker and algorist. A member of a prominent and wealthy mercantile family holding royal favour and civic office, her marriage united common interests within the Company of Merchant Taylors.

Alwyn Ann Ruddock was a noted British historian of the Age of Discovery, best known for her research on the English voyages of the 15th-century explorer John Cabot. Cabot and other navigators of the time were trying to find lands to the West, such as the mythical "Isle of Brasil" or the North American lands reached by Icelanders in previous centuries.

William Weston, a 15th-century merchant from Bristol, was probably the first Englishman to lead an expedition to North America, the voyage taking place most likely in 1499 or 1500. Evidence of Weston's leadership has been discovered only in the early 21st century, and it changes interpretations of the discovery era.

Clement Adams was an English schoolmaster and author, noted for producing an engraving of Sebastian Cabot's map of the world, sometime after 1544.

Robert Sturmy was a 15th-century Bristol merchant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund Withypoll</span> Member of the Parliament of England

Edmund Withypoll, Esquire, of London, of Walthamstow, Essex, and of Ipswich, Suffolk, was an English merchant, money-lender, landowner, sheriff and politician, who established his family in his mother's native county of Suffolk, and built Christchurch Mansion, a distinguished surviving Tudor house, as his Ipswich home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Withypoll</span>

Paul Withypoll was an English merchant, born in Bristol, who settled in London and became a Member of Parliament for the City of London. He had extensive contacts with a group of English merchants and explorers who were engaged in expanding trade networks in the Atlantic world in the early sixteenth century, including the Thorne family of Bristol, Roger Barlow and Sebastian Cabot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Howell (merchant)</span>

Thomas Howell (c.1480-1537) was a merchant and philanthropist of Welsh origin, who trained in Bristol and London. His surviving commercial ledger (1517-27) is the first example of double-entry bookkeeping in English. He is best known for the large charitable bequests he left on his death, which included the monies used to found Howell's School in Llandaff, Cardiff and Howell's School in Denbigh.

Hugh Eliot (fl.1485-c.1518) was a fifteenth-century Bristol merchant who was involved in the port's early Atlantic exploration voyages to North America. He was identified in the sixteenth century as one of the English 'discoverers of the Newfound Landes'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Thorne (merchant)</span>

Robert Thorne the younger (1492-1532) was a sixteenth-century Bristol merchant. He is known both for promoting exploration voyages in the 1520s and for co-founding Bristol Grammar School, along with his brother Nicholas Thorne.

References

  1. ↑ Quinn, David Beers (1966). "Thorne, Robert, Sr. (d. 1519)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 1. Toronto: University of Toronto/Université Laval.
  2. ↑ Baldwin, R. C. D. (2018). "Thorne, Robert, the elder (c.1460-1519)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  3. ↑ Moore Smith, G. C. (1936). The Family of Withypoll: with special reference to their Manor of Christchurch, Ipswich and some notes on the allied families of Thorne, Harper, Lucar, and Devereux. Walthamstow Antiquarian Society. p. 25.
  4. ↑ Carus-Wilson, Eleanora M., ed. (1937). The Overseas Trade of Bristol in the later Middle Ages. Bristol: Bristol Record Society. pp. 234, 272, 278.
  5. ↑ Condon, Margaret; Jones, Evan, eds. (3 May 2019). "Bristol 1473: Particulars of Account of Thomas Croft and John Langston, customers, April to September 1473". University of Bristol: Research Data Repository.
  6. ↑ Condon, Margaret; Jones, Evan T., eds. (13 Nov 2019). "Bristol 1474: Particulars of account of Thomas Croft and John Langston, customers, 10 April 1474 to 29 September 1474". University of Bristol: Research Data Repository.
  7. ↑ Condon, Margaret; Jones, Evan, eds. (15 Nov 2019). "Bristol c.1477: Particulars of Account of Thomas Asshe, controller, large fragment, early August to 2 September". University of Bristol: Research Data Repository.
  8. ↑ Moore Smith. Family of Withypoll. pp. 24–25.
  9. ↑ Quinn, David Beers (1966). "Eliot, Hugh". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 1. Toronto: University of Toronto/Université Laval.
  10. ↑ Williamson, James A. (1962). The Cabot Voyages and Bristol Discovery under Henry VIII. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society. pp. 201–202.
  11. ↑ Williamson. Cabot Voyages. pp. 26–29.
  12. ↑ Quinn, David Beers (1968). Sebastian Cabot and Bristol Exploration. 21. Bristol Historical Association. pp. 11–12.
  13. ↑ Jones, Evan T.; Condon, Margaret M. (2016). Cabot and Bristol's Age of Discovery: The Bristol Discovery Voyages 1480-1509. Bristol: University of Bristol. p. 62.
  14. ↑ Williamson. Cabot Voyages. pp. 247–48.
  15. ↑ Williamson. Cabot Voyages. p. 215.
  16. ↑ Ruddock, Alwyn (1974). "The reputation of Sebastian Cabot'". Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research. 42: 98.
  17. ↑ Jones; Condon. Cabot and Bristol's Age of Discovery. p. 63.
  18. ↑ Jones; Condon. Cabot and Bristol's Age of Discovery. pp. 64–65.
  19. ↑ Flavin, Susan; Jones, Evan T., eds. (2009). Bristol's Trade with Ireland and the Continent, 1503-1601. Vol. 61. Bristol: Bristol Record Society. pp. 19, 38, 77.
  20. ↑ Flavin; Jones (eds.). Bristol's Trade with Ireland and the Continent, 1503-1601. pp. 126, 129, 130, 134, 159.
  21. ↑ Hill, C. P. (1951). The History of Bristol Grammar School. p. 3.
  22. ↑ Ralph, Elizabeth, ed. (1979). The Great White Book of Bristol. Vol. 32. Bristol Record Society. pp. 3–4, 13.
  23. ↑ Baldwin, R.C.D. (2004). "Thorne, Robert, the elder (c.1460-1519". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  24. ↑ Moore Smith. Family of Withypoll. p. 26.
  25. ↑ Fox, Francis F., ed. (1910). Adams's Chronicle of Bristol. Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith. p. 82.
  26. ↑ Draper, Charles, ed. (2007). "Robert Thorne the elder's Will, proved 6 July 1519". The Smugglers' City: University of Bristol. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  27. ↑ Moore Smith, G. C. (1936). The Family of Withypoll: with special reference to their Manor of Christchurch, Ipswich and some notes on the allied families of Thorne, Harper, Lucar, and Devereux. Walthamstow Antiquarian Society. p. 26.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.