What Links Mrs Thrale To Corpus Christi, Tremeirchion?

Tremeirchion Church
She is buried here. But who is Mrs Thrale? Hester Lynch Thrale was a British diarist, author, and patron of the arts. Her diaries and correspondence are an important source of information about Samuel Johnson and 18th-century life.
When her father became bankrupt she married a rich brewer called Henry Thrale with whom she had 12 children but the relationship was far from idyllic and Hester was known to associate with whom she pleased.
Using her husband's financial status Hester was able to enter London society and as a result she met notable figures like Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Bishop Thomas Percy, Oliver Goldsmith. In 1775 Samual Johnson wrote two verses for her, the first in celebration of her 35th birthday, and another in Latin to honour her.

When Henry Thrale died in 1781 Hester married Gabriel Mario Piozzi, an Italian music teacher but it caused a fall out with Samuel Johnson which was only mended just before his death. Hester and Gabriel meanwhile moved to a specially-built country house on her Bach y Graig estate in the Vale of Clwyd, near Tremeirchion village in north Wales.

It was here that she published Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson (1786) and her letters (1788). Hester Piozzi died at number 10 Sion Row, Clifton, Bristol, of complications after a fall, and was buried on 16 May 1821 near Brynbella in the churchyard of Corpus Christi Church, Tremeirchion, next to Piozzi. A plaque inside the church is inscribed "Dr. Johnson's Mrs. Thrale. Witty, Vivacious and Charming, in an age of Genius She held ever a foremost Place".

You can see the ivory white plaque on the left hand side of the church sandwiched between the brass plaque and the archway contain the effigy of a knight.

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