Thrale/Thrall history

Coat of arms

Thrale family of the City of St Albans

Arms of the Thrale family of the City of St Albans.

Richard Thrale’s 1973 book A New Thraliana shows the arms of the Thrale family of the City of St Albans in the County of Hertfordshire. The French motto, translates to 'I persevere'.

The blazon comprises a shield per fess azure and paly of ten or and gules, in chief a saltire couped between two pheons points upwards or, and the crest, between two tuns an oak tree proper, fructed or.

Monument to John Thrale in St Albans Cathedral 1704

Thrale coat of arms on John Thrale’s 1704 monument in St Albans Cathedral..

The extravagant monument of John Thrale of Hammonds in the south wing of the St. Albans Cathedral includes a colourful coat of arms at its summit. This is the oldest Thrale coat of arms known to this website.

This comprises a paly of ten or and gules, with the crest, out of a ducal coronet an oak tree vert.

These arms were been adopted by other members of the family and can be seen in Streatham Church on the mourning tablet for Henry Thrale.

John was an ambitious and ruthless merchant, who as a young man started as a manager of a plantation in the West Indies that exploited enslaved Africans.

John was also the owner of Fairfolds Farm which he left to his daughters, whose descendants sold the farm to Thrale relatives. The Marshalswick branch is descended from John Thrale.

John Threele of Arundel died 1465

A similar coat of arms, for which no image is known to this website was used by John Threele of Arundel; who died in 1465 and was Marshall of the Household to William, 9th Earl of Arundel, and in this case, the coat of arms was described as a Paly of ten, or and gules.