Thrale history

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and left legacies to Mrs. Anne Mathew, daughter of Mr. Job Matthew, Apothecary, in the Poultry, London of of £3000. Also mentioned were the Gregorys, Marriotts, Holmdens, Beeches, Clays, and Hucks, but nothing was said of his wife.²³ Mary Rose fought back however, and chancery proceedings a year later²⁴ showed that Caleb had married her in 1720, that he had deserted her when his parents threatened to cut his allowance, and she claimed her share of her husband's estate for herself and her son Caleb. One cannot help feeling pleased that she appeared to have won, for the young Caleb became a Ward in Chancery, later making two marriages, firstly to Hannah Shallett, and secondly to Susannah Lawrence.²⁵ Thus when Caleb died in 1786 he gave Childwickbury to his eldest son Caleb, son of his wife Susannah, daughter of George Lawrence of Kimpton. William Thrale of Chiswick, Middx, brewer (of the No Mans Land family) together with John Cowper of St. Albans and William Lawrence of Isleworth, received all his advowson in trust for the young Caleb. Young Caleb also had a younger brother Joshua.²⁶ It was in 1865 that Joshua Lomax died at Brighton, late of Childwickbury, and thus ended the long history of the Lomaxes at Childwickbury. As reference after reference is made to the Lomax family in this chronicle, a picture of their life in the community of St. Albans should steadily grow. During the years the following Manors had been held by them; Ponsbourn in Hatfield, Popes in Hatfield, Bovingdon, Flamstead, Westbrook Hay, in Hemel Hempstead, Herons in Wheathampstead, St. Pauls Walden and Parkbury in St. Stephens, besides Shenleybury and Childwickbury, all possessed mainly through the efforts of the first Joshua who was Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1674 and of his partner Stephen Ewer. The resting place of the Lomax family is a tomb in St. Michaels churchyard near to the tall cross marking the tomb of the Toulmin family who purchased Childwickbury from the Lomaxes. There is also a beautiful window in the church commemorating Joshua Lomax.

Trusting that digression, even when relevant, will be forgiven, the narrative should continue on now with the story of the two sisters of Richard Thrale who married the daughter of the doughty Dissenter. One Sarah, had married Robert Penn, member of a family long resident at Codicote. Whilst the Penns of Shropshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire, had no connection with the great Quaker Penn of Pennsylvania, the Penns of Codicote are an interesting family.²⁷ Robert Penn was descended from John Penn who was groom of the Privy Chamber and Porter and Barber to Henry VIII by whom he was given the Manor of Codicote at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The transfer of wealth and property to secular hands during that period

Footnotes

23. P.C.C. 195 Auber.↩︎
24. P.R.O. Sewell's Division C 11/371/52.↩︎
25. Hertfordshire County Homes - Kitten 1892.↩︎
26. P.C.C. 625 norfolk.↩︎
27. Brig. O.F.G. Hogg - Journal Soc. of Genealogists Oct. 65.↩︎