Thrale history

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Travel was expensive and difficult; and for this reason one finds families who have served their own small village for centuries. One of the oldest families in this parish wa the Thrales, and "few yeoman families could boast of a more respectable ancestry".¹ A complete history could be written of this, and other such families, and would be a small reflection of this parish history. Thus the same names will continually be mentioned throughout the book. Robert Thrale, who died in 1538, was the predecessor of a family which was to serve Sandridge well. He stated in his will that he wished to be buried in Sandridge Church, and to have masses said for his soul for nine months.² Royalty has seldom been connected with Sandridge, but there is one association, even though legendary. There was once in existence a now unlocated manuscript which recounted the following tale:

In ye last year or two of Queen Mary's reign (1556-58) and during the persecution of Elizth., Elizabeth was under ye necessity of making her escape from Hatfield or Theobalds to Ashridge; being nearly persued and nearly taken by Queen Mary's emmissarys, she dismounted her palfrey or horse and escaped into the barn or house of Mr Thrale of No Mans Land; where she was concealed for several days and escaped. As a reward Queen Elizth., on coming to the throne, gave the Thrale family as a token of her regard amongst other things arms and a broad arrow.³

The College of Arms know nothing about such a grant; the tale has also been attacked by the argument that the only time when Elizabeth was in real danger was during Wyatt's rebellion when Mary ordered Elizabeth to return from Ashridge to London. This journey could have been the only one which would have brought Elizabeth anywhere near Nomansland, and then she was only under semi-arrest. Her route was via Redbourn, St. Albans, where she stayed at the house of Sir Ralph Rowlatt, Mymms, and Highgate.

The period was unhappy. An epidemic of influenza visited the country in 1557 and continued through most of 1588, "carrying off people in hundreds and bringing sorrow to almost every household. Trade and agriculture were fearfully depressed, bad seasons contributing to the general ruin, while the heavy hand of taxation was felt by rich and poor. Storms and tempests rarely paralleled for their destructiveness added vastly to the general feeling of misery. Political unrest, and a war with France ending in irretrievable disgrace, were circumstances which clouded the more distant horizon".⁴ The people of Sandridge lived much the same as those in other English villages. The only one of the existing buildings that were standing at that time is St. Leonard's church. The cottages were gabled and thatched with clay, loam, rubble and wattle-work filling up the spaces between the uprights, and cross-beams. Chimneys had recently become the usual thing instead of the exception, and the fuel for warmth and cooking was wood. The people fed reasonably well with two meals a day, mostly of bread and meat. "Potatoes were just beginning to come into some garden plots, but were not yet grown as a crop in the fields." "Dinner, the chief meal, was at eleven or twelve, and supper some five hours later."⁵ The food was served on wooden plates and eaten with spoon, knife and fingers, but not forks. The yeomen might have one or two pieces of pewter, but crockery was not of that date. The men all wore beards which must have saved an incredible number of man-hours. Out in the fields the horse was gradually beginning to share with the ox the labours of the plough.

The lot of the poor people is clearly illustrated when the records concerning the parish almsbox are read.

1602. After some money had been given "to Thomas Heath impoverished by reason of sickness, remaineth in the chest this present dye XiXs Viid.

Then two days after Christmas 21/4 was found in the box. Three shillings was given to "Brocke being sick and in need" and a shilling to "Robert Anderson by reason of his wife's sickness

1603. Taken out of the boxe to gyve to two poore women for taking pains to burie a poore travylr and for making a grave xvjd.

Footnotes

1. Cussans 1, History of Hertfordshire.↩︎
2. J.H.Bushy in The Hertfordshire Descent of Henry Thrale, Nov.1948.↩︎
3. A Broad Arrow for marking sheep, the property of the Sandridge Thrales , was in St. Albans' Museum till 1949, because of its supposed connection with Queen Elizabeth I.↩︎
4. H.Gee, Reformation Period, pp.196-7.↩︎
5. G.M.Trevelyan, English Social History, p.145.↩︎