| {{ad}} |
|
|
|
| Origins Available: |
| | England |
Tharpe is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and comes from the family once having lived in the area referred to as the thorp which is the Old English word for village, farmstead or hamlet. 1 The surname Tharpe is a habitation name that was originally derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads. The surname originated as a means of identifying individuals from a particular area. In the Middle Ages people often assumed the name of the place that they originally lived as their surname during the course of travel. In this case the place-name Thorpe was found in various locations in England.
The surname Tharpe was first found in Yorkshire, Surrey, Essex, Lincolnshire, Durham and other locations throughout Britain. The Domesday Book of 1086 lists six locations in Britain all having the spelling Torp. 2 "The Thorps of Ryton, county Durham, as said to be descended from Robert Thorpe, of Thorpe, near Wellwyke, in Holderness, who flourished in the reign of King John. " 3
The Hundredorum Rolls of 1237 lists: Adam de la Throppe in Wiltshire; Augustinus de Thorpe in Suffolk; and Warin de Thorpe in Cambridgeshire. 4
The Pipe Rolls of Northumberland list William de Torp in 1158 and the Assize Rolls of Cheshire in 1287 list Robert be Thorp. The Subsidy Rolls of Cumberland (Cumbria) list Jak de Thorp in 1332. 5 Another branch of the family was found at Thorpe in Surrey in later years.
"The manor appears to have been held under the abbots of Chertsey in the 15th century, by a family named Thorpe: after the Dissolution, Queen Elizabeth granted the lands to Sir John Wolley, her Latin secretary." 6
One of the first on record was Robert de Thorpe (fl. 1290), an English judge, who "appears to have been head of an ancient family residing at Thorpe Thewles, near Stockton, Durham, and to have descended from Geoffrey de Torp, who in 1166 held that estate of the bishopric of Durham as half a knight's fee." 7
John de Thorpe (d. 1324), Baron Thorpe, was an English judge, apparently son of Robert de Thorpe of North Creak and Ashwell-Thorpe, Norfolk. "By his wife Maud, [he] came of a family of wealth and importance in Norfolk and Suffolk. His son, Robert de Thorpe or Thorp (1294?-1330), Baron de Thorpe, was also a judge and was thirty years old at his father's death. " 7
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Tharpe research. Another 82 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1346, 1350, 1361, 1407, 1565, 1569, 1595, 1655 and 1665 are included under the topic Early Tharpe History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Tharpe family name include Thorp, Thorpe, Thropp, Thrupp and others.
Notables of the family at this time include Sir William de Thorpe (died 1361), an English lawyer, and Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 26 November 1346 to 26 October 1350; John Thorpe (1565-1655), English architect; William Thorpe, putative author of "The Testimony of...
Another 45 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Tharpe Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
In the United States, the name Tharpe is the 6,375th most popular surname with an estimated 4,974 people with that name. 8
For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Tharpe surname or a spelling variation of the name include: