Thrale history

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Grindon. He died in 1770 at St. Albans, but what happened to his three children Thomas, Richard, and Elizabeth, is unknown. He asked to be buried at Sandridge²⁷. Thus the tale of the Hammonds branch terminates at this point.

The union between Ralph Thrale of No Mans Land and Sarah Halsey of Kimpton, produced a surviving family of five. These parents had married at Ayot St. Peters in 1732. Like his forefathers he is included in the Ralph to Ralph succession of the Wheathampstead Court Roll, and in 1755 power of administration was granted to Sarah.²⁸ The latter was to die in 1799 'weak from great age' and left legacies to the Floyds of Wheathampstead, the family into which her daughter Sarah had married, and to her sons Thomas and George Thrale.²⁹

Of the family of five, Sarah as has just been told, married John Floyd of Waterend Farm. The latter location was to be of great importance to later Thrales. Thomas Thrale founded what can be termed the Croydon family. He apparently went to Croydon, had a son Ralph who became an engraver and lived from 1781 to 1843; his wife Susannah died in 1854. They in turn had a son Ralph who lived from 1813 to 1842, and it was from this latter Ralph that Peter Thrale the well known trainer was descended. It would seem that one of these Thrales succeeded Mr. Pidgeon in the business of trunk maker at the corner of Surrey Street and Scarbrook Hill in Croydon, and eventually disposed of it to Hammond and Perritt which in 1950 was Hammond and Hussey, a well known ironmongers in the High Street. Peter Thrale was in premises at Surrey Street described as ironmongery and veterinary forge in 1851, and also had stables and infirmary for horses at the King's Arms Yard by the High Street. The later Peter Thrale died in October 1959 aged 73. and was one of the shrewdest and most popular trainers from Epsom. He was a magnificent judge of horses, especially yearlings. One year he purchased 14 yearlings for an average of a hundred guineas and sold one of them, Ghost Train, for six and a half thousand guineas. Since the time of his grandfather in Croydon the Thrale link with the turf extended over a hundred years. His best known horse was 'Nitsichin' winning the Irish Oaks in 1931 and the Cesarewitch in 1932. In 1951 he won the Cesarewitch again with the horse Three Cheers. The renowned jockey Ken Gethin married one of Thrale's daughters.

Another of the five members being described was George Thrale of Wheathampstead who died in 1811. He had been admitted to Towhorn in Wheathampstead in 1808 and upon his death held 'yard, garden and

Footnotes

27. P.C.C. 314 Jenner.↩︎
28. Archd. Act Book 1733-1797 fo. 43.↩︎
29. P.C.C. 319 Howe.↩︎
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