Thrale/Thrall history

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details of the estate of Ralph Thrale who died in 1723. The latter owned No Mans Land Farm worth about £80 a year; another called Leavesden in the parish of Abbots Langley, worth £22: two meadows, one in St. Michaels the other in St. Peters, the two worth £22 again. The whole of his estate was valued at £500 - £600, although John Thrale considered that wood cut from one acre should be included, and also three horses and two cows had been omitted since they had been taken as a heriot (a sort of death duty payable to the Lord of the Manor) for No Mans Land and Leavesden. John also knew that Ralph Thrale had been indebted to Mrs. Ann Thrale by bond for £100, and to Mrs. Knowlton for £50.¹⁹

After such a wealth of detail it seems perhaps unnecessary to record administrations and wills. However, administration in 1691 and 1714 were granted to relatives of Thomas Thrale, brother to Ralph Thrale who died in 1673.²⁰ William Thrale, whose £500 share caused such a fuss, and was a bachelor, was subject of an administration in 1724.²¹ Ralph Thrale dying in 1720 left a will full of detail, already known.²² His son Thomas was to receive Leavesden Farm. Cousin John Thrale, son of uncle Thomas Thrale, was to be executor with Thomas Thrale of Marshalswick. Son Ralph Thrale received much of the estate when he attained the age of 21. It is very apparent that many of these yeoman failed to reach even two score years, time and time again children surviving as minors. Abigail Thrale, Ralph's mother, died in 1728 at St. Pauls Walden where she lived with her daughter Abigail, and left legacies to nine grandchildren comprising Ralph and Thomas Thrale, three Prentices and two Freemans.²³ The younger widow, Mary Thrale, died at No Mans Land in 1743 leaving legacies to her two sons Thomas and Ralph.²⁴

Before continuing the tale of the next Ralph in the No Mans Land lineage, a switch could be timely made to the John Thrale of Hammonds who has already been mentioned and who died in 1755, his father Thomas having died in 1742 possessed of Crouch Farm, this being recorded in the Sandridge Manorial Roll, as well as the admittance of John to Hammonds. By his will²⁵ Hammonds was left to his second son John. The eldest son Thomas and the third son William received certain estate, the latter probably going to Shepherds Farm, Botely, near Chesham, Buckinghamshire, which was left to him by his father. John Thrale's daughter Abigail, was wife of John Grindon, and she had three daughters. John also had four other daughters, one of whom Anna, had married Robert Wells. The son John Thrale also inherited the messuage and blacksmiths shop at Coleman Green, where Bunyan's Chimney is situated, very near to

Footnotes

19. Chancery Proceedings C24/1421/41.↩︎
20. Archd. St. Albans Act Bk 3 fo. 37.↩︎
21. P.C.C. Admon Book 1724 fo. 136.↩︎
22. P.C.C. 110 Richmond.↩︎
23. P.C.C. 365 Brook.↩︎
24. Archd. St. Albans Reg. 1718-1743 fo. 434.↩︎
25. Archd. St. Albans Reg. 1743-1771 fo. 261.↩︎