Nicholas Thorne (merchant)
{{Short description|Bristol merchant, c.1496–1546}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Nicholas Thorne
| image = Nicholas Thorne.jpg
| caption = Portrait of Nicholas Thorne in Bristol Grammar School. A 1624 copy of the original.
| birth_date = 1496
| death_date = 1546
| death_place = Bristol
| occupation = merchant
| known_for = Founding of Bristol Grammar School, Mayor of Bristol
| partner =
| children =
| parents = Robert Thorne the elder (d.1519), Johane Withypoll (d. 1523)
| relatives = Robert Thorne d. 1532(brother), Elyn, Catherin, Alice (sisters)
}}
Nicholas Thorne (c.1496-1546) was a sixteenth-century Bristol merchant. He is best known for co-founding Bristol Grammar School, along with this brother Robert Thorne.{{Cite ODNB |last=Baldwin |first=R. C. D. |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/27347 |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2018 |location=Oxford |chapter=Thorne, Robert, the elder (c.1460-1519)|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/27347 }}
Early Life
Thorne was born 1496, the second son of the Bristol merchant and explorer Robert Thorne the elder and Johane Withypoll, who came from another wealthy merchant family.{{Cite book |last=Moore Smith |first=G. C. |url=https://archive.org/details/moore-smith-withypoll/page/24/mode/2up |title=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 |date=1936 |publisher=Walthamstow Antiquarian Society |pages=25}}
Like his brother, Robert Thorne the younger, Nicholas must have been apprenticed as a merchant. This typically began around 13-16 years old and lasted at least seven years.{{Cite book |last=Vanes |first=Jean |url=https://archive.org/details/bha052 |title=Education and Apprenticeship in Sixteenth-Century Bristol |date=1982 |publisher=Bristol Historical Association}} Nicholas Thorne would therefore have finished his training around 1517 and been eligible to become a freeman on Bristol, able to set up his own firm in the town and vote in municipal elections.
Career
By 1517 Nicholas Thorne was trading independently from Bristol to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Andalusia.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bristol-record-society-61/page/194/mode/2up |title=Bristol's Trade with Ireland and the Continent, 1503-1601 |date=2009 |publisher=Bristol Record Society |editor-last=Flavin |editor-first=Susan |volume=61 |pages=194 |editor-last2=Jones |editor-first2=Evan T.}} He appears frequently in the surviving Bristol customs accounts of the 1520s-40s.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bristol-record-society-61/page/204/mode/2up |title=Bristol's Trade with Ireland and the Continent, 1503-1601 |date=2009 |editor-last=Flavin |pages=204, 213, 239, 242, 243, 251, 278, 279, 280, 298, 301, 302, 304, 306, 307, 328 etc. |publisher=Bristol Record Society |editor-last2=Jones}} From Sanlúcar, Thorne had extended his trade in the 1520s to deal with the Canary Islands. The Elizabethan historian Richard Hakluyt reported that according to an old commercial ledger he had examined of 'M. Nicholas Thorne the elder a worshipfull marchant of the city of Bristoll' Thorne had an 'ordinarie trade of marchandise unto the Canarie Islands'.{{Cite book |last=Hakluyt |first=Richard |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.106881/page/n151/mode/2up |title=Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation |year=1598 |edition=1904, Glasgow |volume=6 |pages=124–25}} This was handled by his servant, William Ballard, in Sanlúcar. In 1526 Thorne had cloth and soap sent from Andalusia to delivered to Santa Cruz in Tenerife, with orders to bring back orchil, sugar and kid skins.
In 1528-9 Thorne served as one of the two sheriffs of Bristol.{{Cite book |last=Adams |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/adamsschronicleo00adamuoft/page/86/mode/2up |title=Adams's chronicle of Bristol |date=1910 |publisher=J. W. Arrowsmith |editor-last=Fox |edition=Francis F. |location=Bristol |pages=86}} When Henry VIII stayed in his manor at Thornbury in August 1535, Nicholas Thorne was one of three members of Bristol's Common Council who were chosen to visit him, presenting the king with 'ten fat oxen and 40 sheep towards his hospitality' as well as gold and a silver cup. Henry was reportedly unable to visit Bristol itself because of a Plague outbreak in the city.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/adamsschronicleo00adamuoft/page/88/mode/2up |title=Adams's chronicle of Bristol |date=1910 |editor-last=Fox |pages=88–89|publisher=Bristol, J.W. Arrowsmith }} Another manuscript chronicle claimed that despite this, the king:
'came disguised to Bristol with certain gentlemen to Mr. Thorn's house, and secretly viewed the city, which Mr. Thorn shewed him; and he said to Mr. Thorn, this is now but the towne of Bristol, but I will make it the city of Bristol: which he afterward did by erecting it into a Bishop's See.'{{Cite book |last=Seyer |first=Samuel |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirshistorica02seye/page/214/mode/2up |title=Memoirs historical and topographical of Bristol and it's neighbourhood; from the earliest period down to the present time |date=1821 |publisher=J. M. Gutch |volume=2 |location=Bristol |pages=214}}Around 1535, Thorne petitioned Henry VIII in relation to his 250-ton ship, the Saviour of Bristol, which was then the port's greatest vessel.{{Cite book |title=Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII, Addenda |date=1920 |editor-last=Gairdner |editor-first=James |volume=1, part 1 |pages=No. 812}} Thorne noted that he had inherited the ship from his brother, Robert Thorne (d.1532), who had returned to England in 1531 intending to give the king 'relation of countries to be discovered and by the same ship and others intended through your Grace's aid to discover and seek new countries.'Spelling modernised. {{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Evan T. |title=The Bristol Shipping Industry in the Sixteenth Century |date=1998 |publisher=University of Edinburgh, PhD |pages=232}} Following Robert's death, the Saviour had been employed to trade with the Levant. From 1536-7, Thorne had the ship 'new made' with the king's help.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/letterspapersfor12greauoft/page/112/mode/2up |title=Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII |date=1890 |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |editor-last=Gairdner |editor-first=James |pages=113–14}} In 1539, the Saviour was conscripted into the navy to defend England against a feared invasion by France and Spain following the excommunication of Henry VIII by the Pope in December 1538. On 10 April 1539, Thorne reported to Thomas Cromwell, the King's chief minister, that the Saviour was ready to depart Bristol to join the English fleet at Portsmouth ‘with flags and streamers of your Lordship’s colours and arms’.{{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000005063239&seq=422 |title=Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII |date=1894 |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |editor-last=Gairdner |editor-first=James |volume=14, part 1 |location=London |pages=358–359}}
In 1537 Nicholas Thorne served as one of the two M.P.s for Bristol.{{Cite book |last=Barrett |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/historyantiquiti00barr/page/154/mode/2up |title=The History and Antiquities of the City of Bristol |date=1789 |publisher=W. Pine |location=Bristol |pages=155}}
During the English Reformation of the 1530s, Thorne seems to have alienated some protestant reformers. In 1538-9 he was attacked as 'the nigard [stingy] Thorne' and the 'knave, Nicoll. Thorne' in abusive letters sent by radical Protestants.{{Cite book |last=Seyer |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirshistorica02seye/page/222/mode/2up |title=Memoirs historical and topographical of Bristol |date=1821 |pages=221–23|publisher=Bristol, Printed for the author by J. M. Gutch }} These letters were a response to the imprisonment for heresy in Bristol of the protestant preacher, George Wishart.{{Cite ODNB |last=Dotterweich |first=M. |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/29793 |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004 |chapter=Wishart, George (c. 1513?–1546), evangelical preacher and martyr|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/29793 }}
The ledger of the Bristol merchant, John Smyth, contains numerous references to his commercial dealings of with Nicholas Thorne in the 1540s.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bristol-record-society-28 |title=The Ledger of John Smythe, 1538-1550 |date=1974 |publisher=Bristol Record Society |editor-last=Vanes |editor-first=Jean |volume=28 |location=Bristol}} The ledger reveals that in 1540, Thorne, Smyth and a number of other Bristol merchants established a company to import woad dye from the Azores.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bristol-record-society-28/page/8/mode/2up |title=Ledger of John Smythe |date=1974 |editor-last=Vanes |pages=9, 191|publisher=Bristol Record Society }} The ledger also shows that both Thorne and Smyth, along with many other Bristol merchants were involved in smuggling, illicitly exporting 'prohibited wares' such as foodstuff and leather from England to Spain.{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Evan T. |title=Inside the Illicit Economy: Reconstructing the Smugglers' Trade of Sixteenth Century Bristol |date=2012 |publisher=Ashgate |pages=104–5}} The Bristol customs accounts of the early 1540s suggest Thorne was the port's wealthiest merchant by that time, controlling 7% of the port's declared overseas trade.{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Evan T. |url=https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/22361 |title=The Bristol Shipping Industry in the Sixteenth Century |date=1998 |publisher=University of Edinburgh PhD. |pages=115, n.58}}
In the Lay Subsidy rolls of 1545, Nicholas Thorne, along with John Smythe, were assessed as the richest citizens of Bristol, each of whom were to pay £15 to the Crown.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bristol-record-society-28/page/26/mode/2up |title=Ledger of John Smythe |date=1974 |editor-last=Vanes |pages=27|publisher=Bristol Record Society }} This was three times more than any other person in the city.
In 1544-5 Thorne served as mayor of Bristol. During his tenure he had to contend with 'a great plague in Bristoll which continued a whole year.'{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/adamsschronicleo00adamuoft/page/94/mode/2up |title=Adams's chronicle of Bristol |date=1910 |editor-last=Fox |pages=95|publisher=Bristol, J.W. Arrowsmith }} The historian Paul Slack calculated that between August 1544 and July 1545 the death rate in Bristol rose about seven fold.{{Cite book |last=Slack |first=Paul |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/slack-epidemic-disease-bristol/page/50/mode/2up |title=The Plague Reconsidered: A new look at its origins and effects in 16th and 17th Century England |date=1977 |publisher=Local Population Studies |editor-last=Slack |editor-first=Paul |pages=51 |chapter=The Local Incidence of Epidemic Disease: the Case of Bristol 1540-1650}}
Family
According of the 'Pedigree of Thorne' published by Moore Smith, Nicholas Thorne married a woman called Mary in 1530, with whom he had a least five children: Robert, Nicholas, Edward, Frances and Mary.{{Cite book |last=Moore Smith |url=https://archive.org/details/moore-smith-withypoll/page/24/mode/2up |title=Family of Withypoll |date=1936 |pages=25|publisher=Walthamstow Antiquarian Society }} He then married a widow called Bridget in 1542, with whom he had three more children: John, Bridget and Richard. The pedigree is slightly at odds with Nicholas Thorne's memorial brass.
Bequests and Death
File:BGS Nicholas Thorne Brass.jpg
On 31 January 1532 Nicholas Thorne and his brother and business partner, Robert Thorne took out an indenture to transfer an existing Bristol school into their hands. In return they undertook to make a school house for a free grammar school.{{Cite book |last=Hill |first=C. P. |url=https://archive.org/details/hill-history-bgs/page/6/mode/2up |title=The History of Bristol Grammar School |date=1951 |publisher=Bristol Grammar School |pages=7}} This school would become Bristol Grammar School. It received a royal charter from Henry VIII on 17 March 1532.{{Cite book |last=Sampson |first=Walter Adam |url=https://archive.org/details/sampson-history-bgs/page/34/mode/2up |title=A History of the Bristol Grammar School |date=1912 |publisher=Arrowsmith |location=Bristol |pages=34–36}} Thorne, along with his brother, Robert, are regarded as founders of the school, with the school's motto Ex Spinis Uvas (Grapes from Thorns) being a play on their surname.{{Cite book |last=Hill |url=https://archive.org/details/hill-history-bgs/page/14/mode/2up |title=Bristol Grammar School |date=1988 |pages=15|publisher=Bristol Grammar School }}
When Thorne's business associate, Thomas Howell, died in Seville in 1537, he left Nicholas 1000 gold ducats on the understanding that he would distribute it to places and people in Bristol that both his father, Robert Thorne the elder and his brother, Robert Thorne the younger, had made bequests.{{Cite book |title=The Ledger of Thomas Howell, 1522-1528: Draper of London and Merchant of Bristol and Seville |publisher=Bristol Record Society |year=2024 |editor-last=Dalton |editor-first=Heather |volume=79 |location=Bristol |pages=7}}
Nicholas Thorne made his will on 4 August 1546.{{Cite book |last=Moore Smith |url=https://archive.org/details/moore-smith-withypoll/page/30/mode/2up |title=Family of Withypoll |date=1936 |pages=31–34|publisher=Walthamstow Antiquarian Society }} This included bequests to convey to the Corporation of Bristol the hospital and estates of St Bartholomew's Hospital, which housed and supported Bristol Grammar School.
Nicholas was buried in St Werburgh's church, on Corn Street, Bristol. A memorial brass, now in Bristol Grammar School, was erected at the east end of St Werburgh.{{Cite book |last=Moore Smith |url=https://archive.org/details/moore-smith-withypoll/page/n37/mode/2up |title=Family of Withypoll |date=1936 |pages=34|publisher=Walthamstow Antiquarian Society }} It records Thorne's date of death as 19 August 1546, aged 50 and confirms that he was a former mayor of the city. The brass depicts him at prayer. On the right-hand of the brass kneels his first wife, Mary, and their eight children: Jane, John, Frances, Robert, Mary, Johane, Nicholas and Edward. On the left is Bridget, his second wife, and their children, Bridget and John.
The surviving painting of Nicholas Thorne now hanging in Bristol Grammar School, along with a similar one of his brother, Robert, are both copies produced in 1624 from originals borrowed from a Wiltshire family.{{Cite book |last=Latimer |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/annalsofbrist00lati/page/86/mode/2up |title=The Annals of Bristol in the Seventeenth Century |date=1900 |publisher=William George's Sons |location=Bristol |pages=86}}