Life

He was admitted a freeman of Norwich as a carpenter 21 September 1745, and lived in the parish of St. Helen.

He obtained a license for his company of actors, the Norwich Company of Comedians

Norwich Company of Comedians

The Norwich Company of Comedians was an acting company based in Norwich, England during the 18th and 19th centuries.They were a professional, respected and comfortably-off band with better than average wages and popular headquarters at the White Swan inn. The company was treated with deference in...

, to perform in Norwich in 1768, and in the same year sent competition drawings for the erection of the Royal Exchange, Dublin. He died at Norwich on 28 August 1779. In his will Ivory is described as ‘builder and timber merchant.’

Works

At Norwich he designed

• the Assembly House (1754), later used as the Freemasons' Hall;
• the Octagon Chapel
  Octagon Chapel, Norwich
  The Octagon Chapel is a Unitarian Chapel located in Colegate in Norwich, Norfolk, England. It is home to a growing liberal religious community, welcoming people of all religious faiths and none. The congregation is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.The chapel...
  
   in Colegate Street (1754–6), in the Corinthian style; and
• the theatre (1757), called Concert Hall before 1764, of which he is said to have been the proprietor. Its interior was a copy of the old Drury Lane Theatre, and Ivory is said to have been assisted in his design by Sir James Burrough (1691–1764).

Ivory is also said to have designed the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

Family

His widow died on 18 June 1787, aged 80. A monument to the memory of the couple is in the Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Cathedral is a cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Formerly a Catholic church, it has belonged to the Church of England since the English Reformation....

. Of his two sons, Thomas was in the revenue office, Fort William, India; and William, architect and builder in Norwich, erected a pew in St. Helen's Church in 1780, and died in King Edward VI Almshouses, Saffron Walden

Saffron Walden

Saffron Walden is a medium-sized market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It is located north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and approx north of London...

, on 11 December 1837, aged 90.