An elderly Thorley dying alone
I thought this elderly lady, Frances Harriet Thorley, who died in Biddulph, Staffordshire, aged 70 in 1972, deserved a note for posterity. She was a spinster without any apparent family or friends, and befriended my wife’s family when they were young. They were the only people at her funeral, and yet this research showed her to be connected genetically to many. Her widowed mother was a seamstress in Biddulph moor, after her husband’s death in Biddulph in 1914. Her will of 1927 had testator as Harold Thorley, farmer of Hamstall Hall near Rugeley. I assume he was a nephew, and he died around 1962.
Frances was born in Dilhorne, Staffordshire of Leonard and Harriet Georgina Thorley in 1902. She had an older brother Leonard who married in Biddulph in 1921; and previously the family lived at a farm at Dilhorne in 1901. Why they went to Biddulph is not known to me. Frances’s mother, nee Brookes was living at Barlaston with parents Benjamin and Sarah, with six siblings at 1881 census. She married Leonard Thorley there in 1891.Husband Leonard was born in Dilhorne in 1864, son of George and Fanny Thorley. Siblings in 1881 included Thomas- 37, Harriet -20, Edward 18, Henry -15, Ethel -11, Julie -33, George -31, Fanny 28, Frank -25, Sarah 35.
The link between the Thorley concentration in Draycott/Ipstones and Biddulph/Astbury in Cheshire is not known to me, though it would be interesting research. However, as early as 1517 Richard and Robert Thorley of the Astbury area were witnesses to a marriage settlement. Various Thorleys are referred to moving in this area in the 1500's, Somerford and Bedull (Biddulph).
Bye pete