William Thorp II
Mayor of Oxford 1833/4, 1844/5, and 1848/9
William Thorp II (1785–1869) was the eldest son of John Wise Thorp (mercer of 44 Broad Street who was Mayor in 1805 and 1822) and Dorothy Lawrence. His paternal grandfather William Thorp I had also been Mayor (1775 and 1789), as had his maternal grandfather Isaac Lawrence (1759, 1768, and 1784) and great-grandfather Thomas Lawrence (1737 and 1745). His older brother William Thorp II was also to serve as Mayor (1833, 1844, and 1848).
William was born on 6 June 1785 and baptised on 30 June 1785 at St Mary Magdalen Church, Oxford. His mother died in June 1796 when he was eleven years old.
Thorp became the Ensign of the Oxford Local Volunteers in 1806. On 12 April 1810 he married Lydia Philips at Burford Church, but they had no children. He appears to have joined his father’s drapery business, which is listed as Thorp & Sons in Pigot’s 1823 Directory.
Thorp was a Conservative, and entered the old corporation in 1817. He was elected Senior Chamberlain in 1827 and Senior Bailiff in 1829.
Thorp’s wife, Lydia, died at the age of 42 and is described as being of Holywell when she was buried at St Mary Magdalen Church on 10 December 1829.
In 1832 Thorp joined forces with Vaughan Thomas to combat cholera, and also produced with him on 1 September a poster headed: St Giles' Fair. Caution and Remonstrance. To all drunkards and revellers and to the thoughtless and imprudent of both sexes.
Thorpe was elected Mayor for the first time in 1833.
By 1841, when he was 55, Thorp had retired from the family business, which is listed in the Post Office Directory for that year as John Thorp & Son (in the singular). He is listed in the 1841 census as being of independent means, and is living in Holywell Street with his three young nieces Sarah, Mary, and Susannah Joy, and two servants. Later that year he was made an Alderman, and in 1844 started his second term as Mayor.
In 1848 Thorp agreed reluctantly to undertake a third term as Mayor. (The custom at this time was for the mayoralty to be offered in the first instance to aldermen, but the other seven aldermen had all refused.)
The 1851 census shows Thorp as a widower of 65, described as a Magistrate and Alderman, living with his widowed sister Mrs Susannah Folker and his niece Mary Joy, plus two servants. Ten years later in 1861 Thorp still lived with his sister, and they are joined by his 28-year-old niece, Miss Emma Folker. The house is now specified as 92 Holywell Street.
Thorp became known as "The Father of the Corporation". He died on 17 August 1869 at the age of 84, and was buried in Holywell Cemetery: his gravestone (right) reads:
IN MEMORY OF
WILLIAM THORP
ALDERMAN AND THREE TIMES MAYOR
OF THIS CITY
WHO DIED AUG 17 1869 [?]
ALSO OF
[SARAH] THORP JOY
[NIECE] OF THE ABOVE
WHO DIED [ON 3RD JULY 1841]
[AGED 19]
There is a memorial to Thorp and his wife (below) on the wall of St Mary Magdalen Church.
See also:
- William Thorp I, Mayor 1795, 1789 (his grandfather)
- John Wise Thorp, Mayor 1805, 1822 (his father)
- John Thorp, Mayor 1845 (his younger brother)
- Thomas Lawrence, Mayor 1737, 1735 (his maternal great-grandfather)
- Isaac Lawrence, Mayor 1737, 1745 (his maternal grandfather)
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 21 August 1865, p. 5f
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 28 August 1869, p. 5f (obituary)
- 1841 Census: Oxford (Holywell), 891/07/4
- 1851 Census: Oxford (Holywell), 1728/45
- 1861 Census: Oxford (Holywell), 893/116