Thrale history

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but his name was erased owing supposedly to the acrimony a few years earlier. His cousin was William Marston and friend John Gape, no doubt both of the families in St. Michael's, St. Albans. A most complicated sharing was devised between his wife and three daughters, which included his property at Ilford. A commission in 1708 was granted to Elizabeth Waldron, wife of Christopher Waldron, apothecary, Margaret Hyde, wife of William Hyde, and Sarah Huntman, wife of Robert Huntman.⁴⁴ The mother of these three daughters died in 1707 leaving a very considerable estate, following her husband in devising a most complex sharing system. Her grandchildren were also included. Various personal items are mentioned; her gold watch and chain, silver coffee pot, best diamond ring, ruby ring, hair ring set with diamonds, 'the picture wherein my late husband, myself, my mother, and his mother are drawn in one piece and also the book called the History of the Bible'. Margaret also left provision for the governors of Christ Hospital, of St. Bartholomews, and of the Charity for the Relief of Poor Widows and Children of Clergymen. The joint executor was John Gape of St. Albans.⁴⁵

There is still extant in the south transept of St. Albans Abbey, the splendid but hardly graceful, monument of John and Margaret, and also to the three sons Richard, John and Charles. There is displayed the Thrale arms of a paly of ten or and gules impaling those of the Chaplin family, ermine on a chief indented azure, three griffins, heads erased or. This is the earliest known time that the arms of the family were monumentally displayed, having been adopted by John from the arms granted to the Threeles of Sussex. Eighty years later Henry Thrale was to do exactly likewise in Streatham Church. There was also in St. Albans Abbey a further monument, since disappeared, bearing arms of a paly of ten, or and gules for Thrale, impaling gules or saltire or between four bezanti and a chief ermine, a blazon borne by the Hyde family of Nottingham.⁴⁶

A sour ending is indicated by an all too common squabble in the family. In 1720 the three daughters were all arguing about the two wills. Trouble was caused, amongst other things, by Christopher Waldron giving advice to his mother-in-law, Margaret, to sell stock in the Mine Adventure, and the advice was continued after his death by his wife Elizabeth and later by her new husband William Hall. Margaret, the mother, had also, according to the plaintiffs, been very extravagant.⁴⁷ The Waldron, Hyde and Huntman families continued to hold Fairfolds

Footnotes

44. P.C.C. 138 Ash.↩︎
45. P.C.C. 87 Lane.↩︎
46. Dimsdale Collection of hertfordshire Drawings : Herts Muniment Room.↩︎
47. C11/1992/25.↩︎