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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'.

Early Life

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. He is not recorded as a merchant in the surviving accounts of the 1470s. 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.

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'. 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. However, it is not clear whether Dee had any evidence for this. 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.

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. 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. This immediately followed on from a personal reward by the king ‘men of Bristolle that founde thisle’. The Gabriel was subsequently used for expeditions to Newfoundland in 1502 and 1504. 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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

Thorne's last will and testament was written 20 Jan 1518 and proved on 6 July 1519. Although his will requested burial in the crypt of St Nicholas Church, Bristol he died whilst on business in London the following year. In consequence, he was buried in the Temple Church. The text of his epitaph was printed by Richard Hakluyt, the sixteenth century historian of English discoveries. 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.

References

1. Quinn, David Beers (1966). "Thorne, Robert, Sr. (d. 1519)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 1. Toronto: University of Toronto/Université Laval.
2. Carus-Wilson, Eleanora M., ed. (1937). The Overseas Trade of Bristol in the later Middle Ages. Bristol: Bristol Record Society. pp. 234, 272, 278.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Moore Smith. Family of Withypoll. pp. 24–25.
7. Quinn, David Beers (1966). "Eliot, Hugh". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 1. Toronto: University of Toronto/Université Laval.
8. Williamson, James A. (1962). The Cabot Voyages and Bristol Discovery under Henry VIII. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society. pp. 201–202.
9. Williamson. Cabot Voyages. pp. 26–29.
10. Quinn, David Beers (1968). Sebastian Cabot and Bristol Exploration. 21. Bristol Historical Association. pp. 11–12.
11. 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.
12. Williamson. Cabot Voyages. pp. 247–48.
13. Williamson. Cabot Voyages. p. 215.
14. Ruddock, Alwyn (1974). "The reputation of Sebastian Cabot'". Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research. 42: 98.
15. Jones; Condon. Cabot and Bristol's Age of Discovery. p. 63.
16. Jones; Condon. Cabot and Bristol's Age of Discovery. pp. 64–65.
17. 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.
18. Flavin; Jones (eds.). Bristol's Trade with Ireland and the Continent, 1503-1601. pp. 126, 129, 130, 134, 159.
19. Hill, C. P. (1951). The History of Bristol Grammar School. p. 3.
20. Draper, Charles, ed. (2007). "Robert Thorne the elder's Will, proved 6 July 1519". The Smugglers' City: University of Bristol. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
21. Baldwin, R.C.D. (2004). "Thorne, Robert, the elder (c.1460-1519". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
22. Moore Smith. Family of Withypoll. p. 26.
23. 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.

• 1519 deaths
• People from Bristol
• 15th-century merchants
• 16th-century English merchants
• 16th-century English explorers