Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Torp 1086 DB 1209×35 RHug 1243 Cur 1243 Fees

• Thorp(e) 1243 Cur 1269,1279 RGrav 1343 LCh 1352 AD

• Thorp(e) iuxta Lilleburne(e) 1269 RGrav 1284 Cl 1360 Ipm

• Kattorpt 12 AD

• Torpkat 1276 RH

• Thorp le Cat 1232 Fine 1477 Charyte

• Thorpcat 1285 FA

• Thorpe Cat 1410 Pat

• Catthorp(e) 1218 ClR 1232 Cl 1242 Cur 1343 LCh 1497 Braye 1517 EpCB 1576 Saxton

• Catthorp(e) iuxta Lilleburn 1343 LCh

• Cattesthorp(e) 1289,1311,1328,1397 Banco

• Cattesthorp(e) iuxta Lilleburn 1311 ib

• Catesthorp 1311,1330 ib

• Cathorp 1381,1391 Pat 1417 AD 1477 Pap 1627 LML

• Catethorpe alias Thorp Thomas 1574 LEpis

• Cathorpe alias Thorpe Thomas 1635 LeicW

• Thorpthomas 1344 Tax 1377 CPT

• Thorpthomes 1510 Visit

• Thorp(e) Thomas 1518 Visit 1535 VE 1601,1603 LibCl 1637 LeicW

Etymology

'The outlying farmstead', v. þorp . The vill is later distinguished by the manorial affix (le ) Cat . In Charyte's Rental, it is recorded that Leicester Abbey held a virgate of land in Catthorpe ex dono Simonis Mallore de Thorp le Cat et assensu Ysabelle uxoris sue . In the same register, the lady is called Ysabelle Chat de Thorp and Ysabelle le Chat .The township is recorded with the affix ~ Thomas in 1344 and 1377.Apart from these 14th-cent. instances, other spellings with Thomas are found only in late ecclesiastical sources which suggests clerical copying from earlier Church records. The affix presumably refers to that Thomas, son of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, who held Catthorpe from 1295 to 1321. The dedication of Catthorpe's medieval parish church of St Thomas may have reinforced the late ecclesiastical usage. Catthorpe lies one mile north-west of Lilbourne in Northants., hence ~ iuxta Lilleburn (e ) in several forms.