Thrale history

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£1,110; three fields on Wheathampstead Hill covering 18 acres. Lot 3 which included the house, fetched £800 and was purchased by William. Six freehold cottages with barns fetched £300, and a further four cottages £220. The eleven lots fetched a total of very nearly £6,000.

Upon William's death in 1897, the Maltings itself was put up for sale by Rumball and Edwards at the Peahen Hotel, St. Albans. The freehold residence and ten-quarter malting with farm buildings and paddock passed from the Thrale family. The property stretched from the High Street through to land bordering East Lane. Today the house itself is called White Cottage; the maltings themselves are a country club. A month later the contents of the house were sold. Lot 186 - musical box in mahogany and buhl inlaid case - was bought for 10/- for young May Thrale, who upon her death in 1970 at the age of 87 willed it to her grand-nephew Richard Thrale of St. Albans. These disposals led to some family feeling however. In a letter written by Norman Thrale during October 1897 to one of his daughters Lizzie, he recorded:

Dear Lizzie,

I write to let you know how your uncle has left his property. He left T(om) Willsher £250, Sarah Willsher £250, and young N. Thrale £30; the place and everything to be sold and to be divided between Mr. & Mrs. Willsher, equal shares. Aunt at the bakery, not anything. W. Willsher, not anything; that puts them out very much. I think the Meadow they sold a little time back for £800; won't be accounted for. Mr. & Mrs. Willsher executors, so they can manage as they like.

I expect that it will be twelve months before things are settled. The house and things, Maltings and Little Meadow to be sold. The legacies to be paid out of it. I must tell you how your uncle left his will twenty years back. I know of it because my brother Tom received a letter by mistake containing the will; should have gone to my brother William. My brother Tom opened it and read it. It was as follows:

T. Thrale appointed executor: everything to be sold: me and my brother and Miss Willsher equal shares: alike to Woolath's wife, Miss Ivory, as was, £180 and Ed. Ivory's daughter £50. If I died, my share to go to my children equally divided.

So it lets you know that he thought of you once, but it does not stand good now, so you can see the difference. You can see that T. Willsher has got in by some way. So that is all I have at present on the subject.