George Thorpe

George Thorpe (baptized 1 January 1576 – at Berkeley Hundred), was a noted landowner, Member of Parliament, distiller, educator, and major investor in early colonial companies in the Americas.

Early life

George Thorpe was born at Wanswell Court, the family estate in Gloucestershire, England. He was the eldest son of Nicholas Thorpe and his first wife, the former Mary Wilkes, and had two sisters who survived to adulthood. After his mother's death, his father remarried, to Ann Hill Lawrence, who bore sons William and John who survived to adulthood. On 20 February 1598, George Thorpe matriculated at the Middle Temple in London, where he likely studied law. In 1600, his father died, and Thorpe returned to Gloucestershire to handle the estate, as well as supervise the upbringing of his siblings and half-siblings.

In 1614, George Thorpe represented Portsmouth in a short parliamentary session called the Addled Parliament. He encouraged Powhatan Indians to send their children to live with English families and it was his own Indian servants who warned him of the 1622 attack.

Corn whiskey George Thorpe is credited with the distillation of the first batch of whiskey made from corn, a seminal moment for corn whiskey. In the fall of 1620, George Thorpe was said to have distilled a batch of corn beer, and thus made the first samples of what would later become Bourbon whiskey. In a letter, dated December 19, 1620, to John Smith of Nibley, Thorpe reassures his partner of his good health and mentions a "soe good drinke of Indian corne" he has distilled.

The College of William & Mary asserts an historical connection to the early attempt to form a college in Henricus. In 1992, "Henricus Colledge" was revived and dedicated to "Research and Continuing Education on the Judeo-Christian principles fundamental to the Planning, Planting and Purposeful Development of American "Liberty Under Law."