In the Cottonian MSS. (Aug. 1, i. 75) there is a survey of Theobalds Park, drawn on vellum and tinted, said to have been made by Thorpe in 1611. Some of his drawings, such as that of Aston Hall, Warwickshire, may be referred to 1618, or perhaps later; but the date of his death is not known. He is said to have had a son John, ‘likewise a parishioner of St. Martin's’ (Peacham, loc. cit. infra).
Almost all the evidence as to Thorpe's professional work is contained in a ‘folio of plans,’ which in 1780, when its contents were first made known by Horace Walpole (Anecdotes of Painting), belonged to the Earl of Warwick. It subsequently passed into the Greville Library, but on 10 April 1810 was purchased by Sir John Soane, and is now in the Soane Museum. (A volume of tracings from it, by C. J. Richardson, 1836, is at South Kensington; for a revised list of the contents by Dallaway, see Walpole's ‘Anecdotes,’ ed. Wornum, 1888, i. 199.) The folio, which consists of 280 pages, contains plans of buildings, sections of stone work, and diagrams of perspective, drawn in pencil, and finished afterwards with the pen. The drawings were evidently made in the book itself, not subsequently bound together, with the exception of a few which have been pasted on blank pages. The internal evidence of draughtsmanship and handwriting warrants the attribution of almost all the drawings to Thorpe himself, though few are signed. Notes have sometimes been added by another hand to the original remarks in Thorpe's writing. The buildings of which plans or elevations are given include Henry VII's chapel, 1502, and a consecutive series ranging in date from 1547–9 (Old Somerset House, Strand) to 1618 (Aston Hall, near Birmingham).
Though the drawings are by Thorpe, it is impossible to attribute to him (as Horace Walpole seemed inclined to do) the original designs of such a number of buildings, covering so wide a range of date. It is most unlikely that an architect who worked on so vast a scale would have escaped all mention in contemporary literature. The differences in style are too great to be accounted for on the supposition of a single designer, however versatile, even in a period of transition and foreign influence. Where documents exist relating to the erection of the houses attributed to Thorpe, they have been found in no single case to confirm the attribution. Lastly, the majority, if not all, of the drawings are not working plans for buildings to be erected, but surveyor's drawings from finished buildings, which afford no evidence as to the original designer. The volume is too large for a sketch-book, but was probably a pattern-book, in which plans and elevations, collected from various sources, were entered as specimens for reference or for exhibition to clients.
One of the few independent records of Thorpe's work confirms this view of the character of the drawings. Holdenby, Northamptonshire, built for Sir Christopher Hatton before 1580 (now destroyed), has been attributed to Thorpe because the plan and elevation are in the Soane volume. It has been proved that Thorpe merely surveyed Holdenby, for the record exists of payment made to him on 4 June 1606 ‘for his charges in taking the survey of the house and lands by plots at Holdenby … and writing fair the plots of that and of Ampthill House and the Earl of Salisbury's, 70l. 8s. 8d.’ (Devon, Issues of the Exchequer, James I, 1836, p. 37). So the words ‘enlarged per J. Thorpe,’ on the plan of Ampthill, also in the same volume, probably mean drawn to a larger scale by J. Thorpe.
The buildings which can be ascribed with the greatest probability to Thorpe are the following:
- Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire, built for Sir Humphrey Stafford, 1570 to 1575, which differs considerably, as carried out, from the plan (see Gotch, Architecture of the Renaissance in England, pt. iii.).
- The original building of Longford Castle, Wiltshire, begun in 1580 for Sir Thomas Gorges, but much altered at various dates. The original plan, a triangle, with a plain round tower at each apex, founded on the well-known diagram of the Trinity, is probably Thorpe's; but no English builder can be credited with the extravagant facade in German renaissance style, which is later in date, and the elevation in the Soane volume must be regarded as a surveyor's drawing.
- Thorpe had at least a share in the first design of Holland House, Kensington, as built in 1606–7 for Sir Walter Cope [q. v.] This is shown by the words on the drawing ‘Sir Walter Coap at Kensington, perfected by me, J. T.’
- There is a curious design of a house built for himself, the ground-plan of which forms the letters I T, connected by a low corridor, with the rhyming inscription: ‘Thes 2 letters I and T, Joyned together as you see, is meant for a dwelling howse for me. John Thorpe.’ The elevation shows a plain house in three stories, with an attic and gables, not unlike many of the smaller brick houses of the period.
Other houses in the building of which it is probable that Thorpe was concerned in some degree are:
- Buckhurst, in Sussex
