Robert Thorpe

Robert Thorpe (1773 – May 11, 1836) was a judge and political figure in Upper Canada and was later chief justice of Sierra Leone.

Early life

Thorpe was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1773. He was the second son of Robert T. Thorpe and Bonna Debrisay. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1788 and a degree in law in 1789 from Trinity College Dublin. He was admitted to the bar in 1790. At some point before 1815 he was given a Legum Doctor.

In Canada In 1801, he was appointed as Chief Justice of Prince Edward Island, arriving in the colony in November 1802. He encouraged the attorney general Peter Magowan to prosecute minor crimes that were annoying to the population. In 1806 William Weekes was killed in a duel and Thorpe was elected as his replacement to the 4th Parliament of Upper Canada. He advocated that the executive council should be responsible to the elected representatives. He arrived in Sierra Leone in 1811. Thorpe left Sierra Leone in 1813 after he was given a health leave by the governor of Sierra Leone. He was ordered to pay £630 for a surrogate who presided as a judge for him. In 1815 Thorpe brought charges against Charles William Maxwell and supposedly tried to blackmail the colonial secretary Lord Bathurst. Thorpe was dismissed from his judgeship for not bringing the charges to Bathurst sooner. He died in London on May 11, 1836.

Published works A Reply "Point by Point" to the Special Report of the Directors of the African Institution ... (1815) London: F. C. and J. Rivington. Retrieved 2 August 2016. A commentary on the treatises entered into between his Britannic majesty, and his most faithful majesty ... his catholic majesty ... and ... the king of the Netherlands ... for the purpose of preventing their subjects from engaging in any illicit traffic in slaves (1819) London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Browne