Dame Elisabeth and the Frinks  | The Smith and Eley Families  |The Rowlinson Family | The Day Family

12. The Day Family
MARY HILTON

"Here lies the Daye that darkness could not blind..." is the beginning of a memorial inscription to John Daye, the famous printer (he printed Foxe's Book of Martyrs and was one of the first English music printers). He was born in Dunwich in 1522 and died on his way to Little Bradley in 1584.

His second wife was Alice Le Hunt, by whom he had 13 children, but we only know about two of them: Lionel Daye who was provost of Eton and John Daye who was vicar of Little Thurlow from 1622 to 1627. According to the family bible, the Day family are descended from John Daye and Alice Le Hunt. How is this connected with Little Thurlow 2000?

We move on several generations. William Day lived in Rectory House, Great Bradley with his wife Joanna Seeley Day (née Pettett). He was born in 1788, married in 1813 and died in 1873. His fourth son Richard Pettett Day became the shop keeper in Little Thurlow, running a drapers and general store where Corner Cottage is now. In 1853 Richard married his first cousin Mary-Anne Day from Winteringham in Huntingdonshire. They had eight children, four sons and four daughters. The eldest son James emigrated to Australia, where he was murdered on his way back home from the bank on April 27th 1906; the second son William Osborne moved to Leicestershire and married Louisa Jane Goodacre; Thomas Day remained at home, dying at the age of forty seven; John the third son died from influenza at the age of twenty whilst studying at Oxford to enter the church. Tamar, Joanna and Elizabeth all became governesses and returned to Thurlow in their later years. Agnes, the youngest daughter, became a governess for a short time and then during the First World War was a nurse at the military hospital at Netley in Hampshire. She was one of the first physiotherapists!

Taken from page 67

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