DISCOVERING FAMILY PORTRAITS June 2006 by Ruth Thorp

John Thorp

In the collection of artefacts held by this branch of the family is a large leather bound album, where Emily Thorp drafted a family history journal. She never completed it, but in between the pages there are many loose letters and photographs.

Among these is a photograph (postcard size and mounted on thick card) inside an envelope marked 'John Thorp, 1st Quaker - author of Thorp's Letters'. This sepia photograph of an oil painting is quite striking and I used it as one of the main images to illustrate this website, both on the splash (entry) screen and on the top header bar for each page.

Victorian photograph of a portrait of John 'The Quaker' Thorp of Manchester, son of Jonathan Thorp of Wilmslow.

I was therefore naturally very excited to receive an email in the autumn of 2005 from a descendant of John Thorp's son William, via his daughter Lucy Maude née Thorp, saying that he had the original portrait in his possession.

Sadly, the gentleman who had contacted me passed away in April 2006, but one of his sons has been kind enough to send a photograph of the portrait that had belonged to his father:

Portrait of John 'The Quaker' Thorp of Manchester, son of Jonathan Thorp of Wilmslow.

Although some of the detail is missing from the Victorian photograph, which does lack contrast, it is clear to see that it is indeed a photograph of the centre of this portrait.

Detail of portrait of John 'The Quaker' Thorp of Manchester, son of Jonathan Thorp of Wilmslow.

Although there is no proof, it is thought that the painting is by Mather Brown (an early American portrait painter 1761 - 1831 who worked in England from 1781).