1 Apethorpe Hall was acquired through a Compulsory Purchase Order in 2004 and transferred to English Heritage in September 2006. The findings of the Research Team currently studying the house and its landscape context will be produced initially as an internal English Heritage report (‘Apethorpe Hall’, English Heritage Research Department Report Series, 86/2006 (2007), to be followed by a series of published articles and a monograph.

2 Alexander, Jennifer S., ‘Apethorpe Hall: The Evidence of the Masons’ Marks’, Report for English Heritage (2006).Google Scholar

3 Northamptonshire Record Office, Montague Papers, vol. 9, p. 35. Confirming the evidence of this letter, the stonework bears the date 1623, and the rainwater heads are dated 1624.

4 The National Archives (hereafter TNA) PSO 5/4; Northamptonshire Record Office, Montague Papers, vol. 3, p. 197 and vol. 9, p. 35.

5 Royal visits were made in 1603, 1604, 1605, 1610, 1612, 1614 (on which occasion James met George Villiers, later Duke of Buckingham), 1616, 1617, 1619 and 1624 ( Cole, Emily, ‘Apethorpe Hall, Northamptonshire: The development of the state suite, with reference to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’, Historic Buildings and Areas Research Department Reports and Papers, 79 (English Heritage, 2003), pp. 26–29).Google Scholar

6 ‘Apethorpe Hall’, English Heritage Research Department Report Series, forthcoming, 86/2006 (2007).

7 The state apartment of Apethorpe is currently being studied by Emily Cole, as part of her doctoral thesis on Jacobean state apartments.

8 The imagery of the chimneypiece refers to both Buckingham (a ship and an anchor alluding to his position as Lord High Admiral) and Charles, Prince of Wales (three ostrich plumes). The Duke of Buckingham is unlikely to have stayed at Apethorpe on many occasions as he lived at Burley-on-the-Hill, only twelve miles away.

9 Heward, John and Taylor, Robert, The Country Houses of Northamptonshire (Swindon, 1996), pp. 58–69.Google Scholar

10 In addition, the fireplaces incorporate insets of ‘touch’, from Derbyshire, and the fire opening in the King’s Chamber is flanked by grey polished limestone columns from an unknown source, possibly Raunds: Sutherland, Diana, ‘Apethorpe Hall: Geological Report On the Stonework’, Report for English Heritage (2006), p. 10.Google Scholar

11 The stone type was established by Dr Diana Sutherland (Sutherland, ‘Geological Report’, p. 6).

12 This was for the spire of Great St Mary’s, Cambridge, which was built by the Weldon masons William, Robert and John Grumbold in 1593–94 (BL Cotton MS Faustina C.III, fols 512–13; Colvin, Howard, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1830, 3rd edn (New Haven and London, 1995), p. 434)Google Scholar. We are grateful to Dr Mark Girouard for bringing this manuscript to our attention. See also n. 77 below.

13 National Grid Reference, TL 015972. See Sutherland, D. S., Northamptonshire Stone (Wimborne Minster, 2003), pp. 89–90 Google Scholar. In the sixteenth century there was another quarry nearby, located to the north-east of King’s Cliffe (in Cliffe Park, known locally as the Royal Stones), which belonged to the Cecils of Burghley House: Lee, Michael, The Thorpes of Kings Cliffe, London, Uppingham, Leicester (Wansford, n.d.), p. 6.Google Scholar

14 Rockingham Forest Map of c. 1641: TNA MR 1/314.

15 Summerson, John, ‘John Thorpe and the Thorpes of Kingscliffe’, Architectural Review, 106 (1949), pp. 291–300 Google Scholar. This was partially redrafted (and some illustrations replaced or added) for inclusion in the collection of essays entitled The Unromantic Castle (London, 1990), pp. 19–40. Further research on the Thorpe family has been carried out by Michael Lee: Lee, The Thorpes.

16 His father, Thomas avus, died in 1558 (Summerson, ‘The Thorpes of Kingscliffe’, p. 292).

17 Summerson, , ‘The Thorpes of Kingscliffe’, pp. 293–94 Google Scholar, attributed the following to the Thorpes, specifically Thomas pater: porch, Dingley Hall (1558); the Griffin monument, Braybrooke (c. 1568); a porch and chimneystacks, Holdenby (late 1570s/80s); monument to Humphrey Stafford (d. 1575) in Blatherwycke church. He also cited parallels with the following, without going so far as to make outright attributions: chimneypiece, Apethorpe Hall (1562); chimneypiece, Boughton; porch and chimneypiece, Deene Park. Other attributions have subsequently been made, including the Holbein Porch, Wilton House (c. 1560–70; Pevsner, Nikolaus (revised by Bridget Cherry), The Buildings of England: Wiltshire (New Haven and London, 2002 edn; first published Harmondsworth, 1975), p. 35)Google Scholar; monuments to Edward, Duke of York, and Richard, Duke of York, Fotheringhay (1573; notes in church from unknown source; Lee, The Thorpes, p. 32); windows, kneelers and finials, Southwick Hall ( Heward, and Taylor, , Houses of Northamptonshire, pp. 308–09 Google Scholar). No Kirby Hall masons’ marks have yet been found on any of these works, which are of various stone types.

18 For the Thorpe family tree, see three versions of the Visitation of Northamptonshire 1618–19: BL Harley 1184, fol. 217b; Harley 1094, fol. 222b; Harley 1553, fols 191b and 88b.

19 Summerson, , ‘The Thorpes of Kingscliffe’, p. 299.Google Scholar

20 Summerson, John, ‘The Book of Architecture of John Thorpe in Sir John Soane’s Museum’, The Walpole Society, 40 (1966)Google Scholar. A number of drawings have been identified as designs by John Thorpe himself.

21 Colvin, H. M., ‘Haunt Hill House, Weldon’, Studies in Building History. Essays in Recognition of the Work of B. H. St. J. O’Neil (London, 1961), pp. 223–28 Google Scholar. The Thorpe family maintained further family and business connexions with other Midland masonic families in the early seventeenth century (see below, note 77).

22 TNAE351/3241.

23 Thomas Broughton/Boughton married Ellen, one of the daughters of Thomas Thorpe pater. Boughton is described as being ‘of King’s Cliffe’ in the Visitations of Northamptonshire (see above, note 18). In his will of 1615, Boughton asked his brother-in-law Thomas Thorpe to act on behalf of his children, and the Boughton family memorial is located next to that of the Thorpes in King’s Cliffe church. Like Thomas Thorpe, Boughton was a surveyor as well as a mason. He signed an undated map of part of Rockingham Forest, including Apethorpe, and a Thomas Boughton (probably his eldest son, who died in 1658), is said to have made a survey of Fotheringhay in 1624, and of Thornhaugh in 1635 (Lee, The Thorpes, pp. 4, 13, 24 and 48).

24 Northamptonshire Record Office, Peterborough will vol. 10, p. 261, probate 15 March 1624.

25 TNAE351/3239.

26 TNAE351/3242.

27 The original reference for this appears to be lost ( Summerson, , ‘The Thorpes of Kingscliffe’, p. 293)Google Scholar. It concerned three warrants issued to assist Thomas Thorpe in transporting stone from Rutland, Lincoln and Northampton for the building of Aldgate.

28 For Blickling and Hunstanton, see below. There is no evidence that Thomas Thorpe was the ‘Thorpe’ who, with Wyat, carved nine beasts on the Trinity College Fountain, Cambridge, in 1602. This was partly made of King’s Cliffe stone. It was presumably the same ‘Thorpe’ who, in 1614–15, carved embellishments for the Great Gate of Trinity, probably in clunch, and set the lions’ faces on the fountain ( Willis, Robert and Clarke, John Willis, The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, 3 vols (Cambridge, 1886), II, pp. 488 and 628–29).Google Scholar

29 Four surveys dating from the early seventeenth century are signed ‘Thomas Thorpe’, but are not all by the same person. Two bear a confident italic signature with flourishes: an undated survey of Geddington (TNA MPBB 1/2/1) and a survey of Wothorpe dated 1615 (Burghley Archives). The dividers and scale bar are depicted in a similar, but not identical, manner on each map. On the Wothorpe survey this man signs himself Tho: Thorpe Junior’. On the face of it, this seems unlikely to be our man, as his father died in 1596, but since his son was only aged around fourteen in 1610, the possibility must be seriously considered. The same man may have signed the King’s Cliffe parish register as churchwarden in 1610 (Northamptonshire Record Office, King’s Cliffe Parish Register, 187P/1), but a different Thomas Thorpe, with a plainer italic signature, signed the registers for 1611 and 1627. A third Thomas Thorpe can be identified by yet another signature, closer to secretary hand, found on a survey of Burghley dated 1623 (Burghley Archives 1623 4/7). This is very close (but not identical) to a signature on an undated survey of fields by the River Welland (TNA MPA 1/77). As there is no scale bar or dividers on the Burghley survey, these cannot be compared. Perhaps they were by the son of either Thomas Thorpe (Thomas Thorpe, c. 1596–1642) or Henry Thorpe (Thomas Thorpe, born c. 1588).

30 Peterborough Local Administration. Parochial Government from the Reformation to the Revolution 1541–1689, ed. W. T. Mellows, Northampton Record Society, x (Kettering, 1937), pp. 40–44; Lee, The Thorpes, p. 47. It is clear from the Peterborough Feoffees’ Minutes and Accounts that Thorpe was based in ‘Cliffe’. Thorpe was paid £8 2s. 2d. for this job.

31 Rockingham Forest Map of c. 1641: TNA MR 1/314.

32 Lee, The Thorpes.

32a Airs, Malcolm, The Tudor and Jacobean Country House, a building history (Stroud, 1995), p. 41.Google Scholar

33 Girouard, Mark, Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House (New Haven and London, 1983), p. 5.Google Scholar

34 Airs, , Tudor and Jacobean, p. 38.Google Scholar

35 Airs, , Tudor and Jacobean, pp. 70–71.Google Scholar

36 However, a Mr Thorpe is identified as the ‘surveir of the contractinge’ for a new gallery at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire, in 1625–27 ( Colvin, , Biographical Dictionary, p. 979 Google Scholar). This has been identified as John, rather than Thomas, but it could have been either man, or even a son of one of the three Thorpe brothers, most of whom would have been adults by this time.

37 Colvin, , Biographical Dictionary, pp. 28–30.Google Scholar

38 See Alexander, ‘The Evidence of the Masons’ Marks’. The authors intend to produce a second article, setting out this methodology in greater depth, and explaining how masons’ marks on late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century buildings may be recorded and interpreted.

39 Access to stonework of this period on other ranges of the house, for example the parapets and gables of the hall and north ranges, was limited. The opportunity to study this stonework may arise in the future, if these ranges are covered in scaffolding for restoration work.

40 See, for example, Alexander, Jennifer S., ‘The Construction of the Gothic Choir of Carlisle Cathedral, and the Evidence of the Masons’ Marks’, in Carlisle and Cumbria Roman and Medieval Architecture, Art and Archaeology, ed. McCarthy, M. and Weston, D., British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions, 27 (Leeds, 2004), pp. 106–26 Google Scholar. Study of the marks at Apethorpe suggests that early seventeenth-century workshop methods differed in certain respects from those of the medieval period. This is to be explored by the authors’ forthcoming study on the use of masons’ marks in the early modern period.

41 This is documented in the fourteenth century at Exeter Cathedral, where masons moved freely between the two types of work (see Givens, Jean, ‘The Fabric Accounts of Exeter Cathedral as a record of medieval sculptural practice’, Gesta, 30:2 (1991), pp. 112–18 CrossRefGoogle Scholar). A contemporary example can be found at Hardwick Old Hall, where the mason Abraham Smith turned his hand to figurative plasterwork.

42 As the room is identified by this name in an inventory of 1629, it may have existed as the ‘Dining Room’ before the remodelling of the 1620s.

43 The roof of the Old Dining Room has been dated 1620–62 by dendrochronology ( Arnold, A. J., Howard, R. E. and Litton, C. D., ‘Tree-ring analysis of timbers from Apethorpe Hall, Apethorpe, Northamptonshire’, EH Research Department Report Series (forthcoming)).Google Scholar

44 The addition of a canted bay to attain symmetry is paralleled in the extension of the north range of Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire, in the late 1620s.

45 Gapper, Claire, ‘The Plasterwork at Apethorpe Hall, Northamptonshire, in Context’, Report for English Heritage (2006), and pers. comm.Google Scholar

46 The ‘élite group’ included approximately six or seven men. This compares with Robert Smythson arriving at Longleat with five masons; Thomas Collins of Bristol having a workshop of six men when he died in 1595, and William Arnold arriving at Wadham College, Oxford, in 1610 with twenty-six masons, of whom three were his ‘men’ (we are grateful to Dr Mark Girouard for making these useful comparisons).

47 For Hunstanton, see Norfolk Record Office (henceforth Norf. RO), LEST P7 and Colvin, , Biographical Dictionary, p. 331 Google Scholar. For Blickling, see Norfolk Record Office, MC 3/43–53 and NRS 14649. Conveniently, some of the Blickling accounts are transcribed in Stanley-Millson, Caroline and Newman, John, ‘Blickling Hall: The Building of a Jacobean Mansion’, Architectural History, 29 (1986), pp. 1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48 The supporters are a lion and a collared stag with the forepaws and tail of a lion. Although the le Strange arms are not listed with supporters in Burke’s General Armoury, these supporters are to be found on the tomb of Henry le Strange (d. 1485) in Hunstanton church, and were used again in the nineteenth century.

49 Norf. RO, LEST P7, fol. 28 (20 July 1616); fol. 31 (28 September 1616); fol. 35 (28 December 1616); fol. 44 (26 November 1617); fol. 44V (2 December 1617); fol. 54V (7 and 29 October 1618). Other entries of May and June 1618 relate to the paving the floor and boarding and leading the roof of the porch, work undertaken by local workmen (fols 48V, 49 and 50).

50 This is a type of boat with a flat bottom, particularly suitable for transporting stone, which was still vised on the Humber in the nineteenth century: Purcell, Donovan, Cambridge Stone (London, 1967), p. 99 and fig. 46b.Google Scholar

51 ‘Gumbard fery’ refers to Gunwade Ferry, a wharf on the river Nene in Castor parish. It lies a few miles from Peterborough and was used for the transport of stone from the Lincolnshire Limestone fields from at least the fourteenth century. In the 1580s, stone from King’s Cliffe was loaded onto barges here for transport to Cambridge. The site at TL139984 is still marked by two standing stones, close to the main road. See Alexander, Jennifer S., ‘Building Stone from the East Midlands Quarries: Sources, Transportation and Usage’, Medieval Archaeology, 39 (1995), pp. 126–27 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Purcell, , Cambridge Stone, p. 41.Google Scholar

52 Mr Gurney was frequently given similar commissions by the le Stranges, although he was not salaried. A couple of references to a ‘Mr Scott’ in the Accounts for 1614 and 1615 imply that he was a gentleman neighbour, but he does not seem to have undertaken such commissions habitually for the family.

53 The first mention is 26 June 1621 (Norf. RO, LEST P7, fol. 89). He is named Thomas Thorpe once only (fol. 124v), usually being referred to simply as Thorpe, or Mr Thorpe.

54 Hussey, Christopher, ‘Hunstanton Hall II’, Country Life (17 April 1926), p. 586 Google Scholar, citing a mid-nineteenth-century account of Hunstanton. Confusingly, other sources suggest that it was the earlier porch rather than this archway that was known as the ‘Inigo Jones gateway’ (e.g. Country Life (18 April 1900), p. 212, and Madame (28 September 1901), p. 613).

55 Norf. RO, LEST P7, fol. 109V.

56 Norf. RO, LEST P7, fols 90, 124V. Some of the stone was apparently cut on site, rather than shipped ready cut. In 1623, ‘Old frizbey’, probably a relation of Thorpe’s, was paid for cutting freestone at Hunstanton (Norfolk Record Office LEST P7, fol. 115V).

57 The supporters are a stag and a lion, both sejant and holding a cartouche. The stag is probably from the arms of Stubbe, rather than le Strange, since it is collared and has the tail, forelegs and hooves of a stag.

58 Other marks on the archway are degraded.

59 Thomas Style worked regularly in partnership with Edmund Kinsman, another master mason. He repaired a bridge at St James’s (1615–16), and worked at Greenwich (Queen’s Lodgings, 1615–16) and Newmarket (Brewhouse, 1616–17) (pers. comm. John Newman; Colvin, H. M. (ed.), The History of the King’s Works, 3 (London, 1975), p. 151 Google Scholar; and 4 (London, 1982), p. 113, n. 8 and p. 214).

60 Norfolk Record Office, MC 3/48.

61 Norfolk Record Office, MC 3/43, fols 13V and 14. We are grateful to John Newman for drawing our attention to this reference.

62 Apethorpe marks may be seen on the garden bridge (east front), the first-floor frieze of the south and east fronts, the window surrounds of the south and east fronts (inside and out), the main entrance arch in the Little Court, and the doorways, frieze and quoins in the Little Court. The presence of additional marks alongside Apethorpe marks, and complex variations on some of the Apethorpe élite group marks, enlarge the known profile of the workshop.

63 As Norfolk has little good building stone, builders inevitably had to import ashlar from elsewhere. Nevertheless, they had the choice of a great many Midland quarries and it is worth questioning why they settled on Thorpe.

64 Extensive alterations were made in the early 1560s by Sir Walter Mildmay, who created the first state apartment at Apethorpe, but none of this work bears masons’ marks. Presumably working practices at that time were different from the 1620s. For example, if the masons were paid weekly wages, they may not have marked their work.

65 We are grateful to John Newman for this information, which comes from Hobart’s will (TNA PROB 11/148, dated 20 July 1625, proved 7 March 1625/6). This house, later known as Westmorland House, was inherited by Sir Francis Fane from the Mildmays. Sir Walter Mildmay is buried in the church of St Bartholomew Smithfield.

66 Sir Hamon le Strange’s father, Nicholas, and Sir Henry Hobart had both married daughters of the former Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Robert Bell. Thus Sir Hamon le Strange was a first cousin of Hobart’s heir, Miles Hobart.

67 Norf. RO, LEST P7, fol. 51 v.

68 Norf. RO, LEST P7, fol. 73V.

69 Norf. RO, LEST P7, fol. 78. There is also a passing mention of the family being in St Bartholomew’s, and giving money to Hobart’s coachman when sojourning in London. Furthermore, in January 1618 the le Strange’s steward left to work for Hobart.

70 The Buildings of England makes an error in stating that Thorpe was ‘a bricklayer working at the time at Blickling’ ( Pevsner, Nikolaus and Wilson, Bill, Norfolk 2: North-West and South, 2nd edn (London, 1999; first published, 1962), p. 439 Google Scholar). Although some stonemasons were also bricklayers in this period, there is no evidence that Thorpe was ever involved with brickwork.

71 Norf. RO, LEST P7, fol. 124, etc. In this respect it is interesting to note that Stanyon came from Nassington, near King’s Cliffe. He was ten to fifteen years younger than Thomas Thorpe. Unfortunately, no record of his chimneypiece at Hunstanton Hall survives.

72 Having said this, the cutting of ashlar is highly skilled work, and the mortar joints achieved at Apethorpe are of the order of 3/32 of an inch.

73 Stanley-Millson, and Newman, , ‘Blickling Hall’, p. 15 Google Scholar. Thorpe would have worked alongside the plasterer Edward Stanyon at Felbrigg, as he did at Hunstanton and Blickling (pers. comm. Dr Claire Capper).

74 Gamier, Richard, ‘Merton Hall, Norfolk’, The Georgian Group Journal, 14 (2004), pp. 136–39.Google Scholar

75 One other Apethorpe mark which occurs at Kirby Hall, 5t6, is on the courtyard gateway of c. 1590 (pers. comm. Robert Taylor).

76 Colvin, , Biographical Dictionary, p. 434.Google Scholar

77 The stone cost 6s., and the carriage from Gunward Ferry 8s. 4d. ( Foster, J. E., Churchwardens’ Accounts of St Mary the Great, Cambridge, from 1504 to 1635, Cambridge Antiquarian Society (1905), p. 263 Google Scholar). The connexion between the Thorpes, Frisbys and Grumbolds continued into the next generation. In 1623, ‘Old frizbey’ (possibly William or Humphrey Frisby) was paid for cutting freestone at Hunstanton (Norfolk Record Office, LEST P7, fol. 115V). ‘Old frizbey’ was probably the father or uncle of Humphrey Frisby who built Haunt Hill House in Weldon in 1643, and who had married Elizabeth Grumbold in 1619 (Colvin, ‘Haunt Hill House’, p. 224).

78 Like much of Burghley, this staircase may be built of stone from Cecil’s quarry at King’s Cliffe. In her thesis on Burghley House, Jill Husselby suggested ‘there must be a strong possibility that he [i.e. Thomas Thorpe pater] would have been amongst the circle of masons producing work there in the late 1550s’ ( Husselby, Jill, ‘Architecture at Burghley House: The Patronage of William Cecil 1553–1598’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Warwick, 1996), p. 89 Google Scholar). This is not supported by a (cursory) study of the masons’ marks at Burghley, where the occurrence of mark 11h1 at the top of the Roman stair appears to be the sole indication of a connexion with the Thorpe workshop. Cecil’s quarry was in a different location to Mildmay’s, at the other end of the village, and seems to have been operated by different masons.

79 We are grateful to Bruce Bailey for showing us these marks.

80 A fifth example is Lilford Hall, generally dated to 1635, where a distinctive Apethorpe mason’s mark (13h1) was recorded by Robert Taylor of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (hereafter RCHME) in the late 1970s (and confirmed by Bruce Bailey in 2007). This mark was seen on an upstairs fireplace. The authors have not yet had the opportunity to revisit the building.

81 Thomas Brudenell inherited in 1606 and died in 1663. His work on the house probably began around 1622, when he sought 500 tons of Weldon stone, although it could have started earlier. A relatively late phase of his remodelling involved the chapel, which had a reredos dated 1635. See Heward, and Taylor, , Houses of Northamptonshire, pp. 159–63.Google Scholar

82 The plan published in Heward and Taylor, Houses of Northamptonshire, fig. 193B, shows that this window is thought to date from the eighteenth century, but it clearly incorporates older stonework. This room was probably remodelled when the Oak Stair was inserted, probably between 1622 and 1635.

83 Pers. comm. Robert Taylor. The tower may have been built as the first phase of Brudenell’s remodelling campaign, and was probably erected shortly after 1622 ( Heward, and Taylor, , Houses of Northamptonshire, p. 159).Google Scholar

84 RCHME, Huntingdonshire (London, 1926), p. 232 Google ScholarPubMed. We are indebted to Robert Taylor for pointing out the relationship between the masons’ marks of Apethorpe and Stibbington.

85 The use of oval (or œuil de bœuf) windows in the gables of Stibbington recalls the treatment of the north gable of the Old Dining Room at Apethorpe, raising the possibility that the latter was created towards the end of Thorpe’s career. In this case, the ‘antiquarian’ bay described in the main text, above, probably immediately post-dates the completion of the south and east ranges of Apethorpe. The main Stibbington mark is displayed prominently on this ‘antiquarian’ bay.

86 The stained glass in the east window and the tomb both bear the date 1621. Stylistically, the Mildmay Chapel was typical of family chapels of this period: Colvin, Howard, Architecture and the After-Life (New Haven and London, 1991), pp. 258–68.Google Scholar

87 Colt was responsible for architectural sculpture as well as tombs, including several chimney pieces: three at Somerset House (1610–11, now lost) and three for Hatfield House (c. 1609–10; all in marble). He was also responsible for the ‘greate newe wyndow’ at Greenwich Palace: White, Adam, ‘A Biographical Dictionary of London Tomb Sculptors’, The Walpole Society, 61 (1999), p. 29.Google Scholar

88 In both positions this mark is associated with a second mark, a cross with punched ends, which has not been recorded at any of the sites hitherto associated with Thomas Thorpe.

89 An older fireplace, dated 1562 and made of clunch or ‘white stone’ (possibly from Cambridgeshire or Bedfordshire), was retained in the Great Chamber.

90 This is also the only fireplace to have lining-up marks inscribed on the upper surfaces of its stone blocks.

91 It might be suspected that Thomas Thorpe simply shipped worked stone to London, but in 1606 he was there in person, staking out land for an extension to the burial ground of St Martin’s in the Fields, together with his brother John ( Summerson, , ‘The Book of Architecture’, p. 6 Google Scholar, citing vestry minutes).

92 Thorpe was undoubtedly based in King’s Cliffe at this time, as his offspring were either baptized or buried on an almost annual basis up to 1615 (King’s Cliffe Parish Register 187P/1). He seems to have steadily built up the business inherited from his father, culminating in numerous high status contracts in the early 1620s.

93 Kemp, Brian, English Church Monuments (London, 1980), p. 70 Google Scholar. For Southwark, see also Llewellyn, Nigel, Funeral Monuments in Post-Reformation England (Cambridge, 2000), p. 186.Google Scholar

94 White, Adam, ‘Biographical Dictionary’, p. 12 Google Scholar. Another nephew may have been John Ashley of Ketton, who later worked with Samson Frisbey on Thorpe Hall near Wittering. Many years earlier, a mason named Ashley was mentioned in the Hunstanton Accounts, next to the settlement of Thorpe’s bill in 1624 (Norf. RO, LEST P7, fol. 125V). This mason, who was paid for ‘setting the Crest of the wall’ may have been Thorpe’s brother-in-law, Robert Ashley of King’s Cliffe, who was married to his sister Jane. One is left with the overwhelming impression that Thorpe’s business was very much a family affair.

95 Sutherland, , ‘Geological Report’, pp. 9–12 Google Scholar. In particular, the stone of the King’s Chamber fireplace was identified as ‘Lower Lincolnshire Limestone, specifically the Greetwell Member’.