Elizabeth (Rest) Thorp (abt. 1619)

Born about 1619 in England

Wife of William Thorp — married 22 Oct 1639 in Oadby, Leicestershire, England

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Biography

Based on the date and location of her marriage, Elizabeth Rest was probably born in about 1639 in Leicestershire, England. She married William Thorp in Oadby, Leicestershire, on 22 October 1639. William was of Whetstone about 5 miles from Oadby.^[1][2]

Nothing further is known about Elizabeth (Rest) Thorp at this time and no baptisms of children or burials clearly belonging to this couple have been found.

Research Notes

Birth Estimate and Last Name at Birth

An image of the original parish register entry^[1] has no supplemental text such as "spinster" or "widow" so the normal assumption is that it was her first marriage and (per WikiTree standards) that she was about 20 at the marriage so born about 1619.

Conflated Profile

This profile was merged with an Elizabeth Unknown who was originally created as the wife of the 30-year old William Thorpe who emigrated from London to the Island of Providence (off the coast of Columbia) in 1635 with 20-year old wife Elizabeth Unknown and 2-year old daughter Elizabeth Thorp. Unfortunately this was a bad merge; Elizabeth Rest was a woman who married a different William Thorpe in 1639 at Oadby, Leicestershire, England.

The source of much of this confusion was an inaccurate genealogy of this family by Sheldon Thorpe^[3] who asserted that the 1635 emigrant William was the same William Thorpe who was in New Haven Connecticut by about 1637 as a servant of John Johnson. As Donald Lines Jacobus discussed in his TAG article,^[4] this is extremely unlikely as William of New Haven was most likely single in 1637. Jacobus also shows other asserted facts (by Sheldon Thorpe) that were provably wrong. This confusion has led to many people believing that the wife of William of New Haven was "Elizabeth".

To make matters worse, somebody fixed on the 22 Oct 1639 marriage at Oadby, Leicestershire, England of Elizabeth Rest and William Thorp^[5] and decided that it represented the supposed "Elizabeth" wife of William of New Haven. William was documented as a freeman and planter of New Haven on 4 June 1639^[6] meaning he had been there for more than a year (1637 being his most likely arrival with Johnson) and was not likely to have returned to England to marry Elizabeth Rest and then had a child (Nathaniel) with her by about April 1640 in New Haven.

Was her husband the William Thorpe baptized on 10 Oct 1601 at Claybrooke, Leicestershire, England as son of John and "Ane" Thorp^[7] about 8 miles from Oadby? Possibly although at that marriage he was "of Whetstone" between Claybrooke and Oadby and 38 is old for a first marriage. The parish register had no supplemental text such as widower so while this is possible it seems unlikely.

Finally, the name of the wife of William of New Haven is not recorded in any original records (neither first nor last name). Torrey in "New England Marriages to 1700"^[8] guesses that her name was Elizabeth but the source he cites is Sheldon Thorpe's book which is known to be incorrect in several particulars and unsourced in all of them.

Disputed Death Claims

A death date of 9 Oct 1660 in New Haven was originally asserted but this is based on the faulty Sheldon Thorpe work (no such death record has been found in original records) and assumes that "Elizabeth Rest" was the wife of William Thorp of New Haven when there is absolutely no reason to believe that this is true. Once again, there is no record of the name of the first wife of William of New Haven and he was extremely unlikely to be the married 1635 passenger to an island off the coast of Columbia while at the same time being the single servant of John Johnson in New Haven, Connecticut in 1637.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Elizabetha Rest in 1639 Leicestershire Marriages Oadby, Leicestershire, England findmypast.co.uk subscription required
2. ↑ "England Marriages, 1538–1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N265-YYZ : 12 March 2020), Willm. Thorp, 1639.
3. ↑ "Genealogies of Connecticut Families: From the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 1", page 484, Genealogical Publishing Com, 1983 - Connecticut
4. ↑ Jacobus, Donald Lines, "William Thorp of New Haven" The American Genealogist. New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .) Reference Volume 20 (1943), page 237-8 via American Ancestors $subscription
5. ↑ "England Marriages, 1538–1973 ", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:97CG-G3Z : 12 March 2020), Entry for Willm. Thorp, 1639.
6. ↑ Records of the colony and plantation of New-Haven, from 1638 to 1649 by New-Haven Colony; New Haven (Conn.); Hoadly, Charles J. (Charles Jeremy), 1828-1900 Publication date 1857 Publisher Hartford, Printed by Case, Tiffany and Company p. 9
7. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:9C9F-WCL : 21 September 2020), Entry for William Thorp, 1601.
8. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. entry for William Thorpe Vol. 3 p. 1514 $subscription required

See also:

• Thorpe yDNA research