Thurlow

Fred Brett‘s great grandmother was Emma Cook née Thurlow. Emma was born in 1848 in Butley in Suffolk, the first child of innkeeper John Thurlow and his wife Mary Ann née Easter. There is only one pub in Butley, called the Oyster Inn.

A report in the Bury & Norwich Post in 1838 states that the pub was part of the sale of Samuel Alexander’s Brewery, the Oyster selling at £820. A report in the Ipswich Journal on 25 Jun 1853 states that: “The Oyster Inn, Butley to be sold by auction. Mr John THURLOW, the Proprietor & his family have occupied this Inn for the last 25 years & he now only leaves in consequence of having engaged a farm”.

Indeed in 1861, John Thurlow can be found as farmer of 160 acres employing one man and a boy. He probably took over running Brick Kiln Farm in Aldeburgh from his father-in-law John Easter, who died in 1856. Between 1865 and 1868, he was running the Three Mariners Inn in Slaughden Quay in Aldeburgh. The inn was situated on a narrow shingle spit between the Alde River and the North Sea, described in the East Anglian Daily Times in 1877 as “having the sea as a visitor at the front door, while the river was noiselessly seeking admission at the back entrance”.

By 1869, according to his daughter Emma’s marriage certificate, John was behind the bar in St Peter’s Ipswich and in the 1871 census, he can be found in the Cardinal’s Hat in Ipswich.

John Thurlow was born in 1822 in Harwich Essex to John and Hannah née Beeden. John’s father was a mariner at the time of his John’s birth but later took over as innkeeper in Butley. He died of consumption at the age of 51 with his son-in-law John Fleete Wilkinson present at the death.

John senior was born in 1790, but was not baptised until he was five years old. His parents were another John Thurlow born c.1766 and Elizabeth Shuckforth, both born in Harwich.