Robert Thorpe (Lord Chancellor)

Sir Robert Thorpe KS JP (died 29 June 1372) was a British justice.

He served as a Justice of the Peace in Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, and was also involved in Assize, Gaol delivery and Oyer and terminer.

On 27 June 1356 he was appointed as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and knighted, and on 1 October he was awarded a grant of £40 to support his new position (£33,784 in 2023[1]).

He was a member of the councils of both the Black Prince and John of Gaunt, and was appointed a Trier of Petitions at every Parliament between 1362 and 1371.

An anti-clerical movement in 1371 forced the King to dismiss the Lord Chancellor, treasurer, and keeper of the privy seal and replace them with laymen; as a result, Thorpe was appointed as Chancellor to replace William of Wykeham, a position he took up on 14 April.