Thorpe Surname
Origin
: English
Spelling variations include: Thorp, Thorpe, Thropp, Thrupp and
others.
First found in Yorkshire where they were anciently seated before
the Norman Conquest in 1066, as Lords of the manor of Thorpe.
Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants
were: John Thorpe was a settler at St. John's Newfoundland in
1814; Elizabeth Thorp settled with her daughter Elizabeth in
Rhode Island in 1635; William Thorp settled in Boston in 1637.
MOTTO; 'Upon the ancient tracks'
Suggested Readings for Thorpe
Genealogy of Some Early Families in Grant and Pleasant Districts, Preston County, West Virginia, also the Thorpe Family of Fayette County, Pennsylvania by Edward Thorp King, Facts & Anecdotes of Turnersville, Texas by Laura A. Tharp, Sifting Through the Ashes for the Althorp, Allentharpe, Tharp, Tharpe Family and Connections by Eleanor Davis McSwain.
Another Version of the Name Thorpe
Definition: dweller at the hamlet.
Most Norse
placenames in England are habitative names. The majority of
these are compounds ending in "by" or "thorp". "By", at the time
of its use in England, meant "village" and "thorp" meant
"secondary settlement, dependent outlying farm or hamlet". In
general, names ending in by are older than names ending in
thorp.
Thorp is the 4,738th most popular last name (surname) in the
United States.
Our earliest Thorpe ancestor is William, who travelled from
London to North America in 1637 with the Puritan leaders John
Davenport and Theophilus Eaton on the Hector. They founded and
settled the New Haven Colony in 1638.