Anne Laura Thorold

Thorold, Anne Laura née Temple, 1806—1872

by Benjamin Colbert

Anne Laura Temple was born on 30 March 1806 at Probus, near Truro, Cornwall, the eldest of fifteen children, eight of whom survived into adulthood. Her father was Octavius Temple (1784-1834), army officer, sub-inspector of militia on the Ionian Islands, and later Lieutenant-Governor of Sierra Leone; her mother, Dorcas Temple, née Carveth (1786-1866). Among her siblings were Frederick Temple (1821-1902; ODNB), future Archbishop of Canterbury, and Catherine Temple, later Moberly (1812-92), author of Sierra Leone; or, the Liberated Africans (1835).

Like her sisters, Anne Temple was probably educated by her mother who, with no formal education herself, developed her own rigorous method of instruction, while impressing all of her children with a deep affection (Anne Temple would later dedicate Letters from Brussels to her mother ‘with every sentiment of love and veneration’). In 1821, she may have travelled with her family to the Ionian island of Lefkada when her father took up his post as sub-inspector of militia at Santa Maura, but before they returned to England in 1830, she had married Arthur William Thorold (1808-88), ensign in the 18th Regiment of Foot, probably around 1826/27.

A year after her father died at Sierra Leone (1834), she published Letters from Brussels with the dedication to her mother and a tribute to both parents by way of a conclusion. She visited Belgium again in May 1842 (Sandford 63), but appears to have resided mostly in the West of England, from around 1865 at Ilfracombe.

She died in the autumn of 1872, at Exeter, where she is buried.

Sources:

The Age, no. 13 (Sun., 7 Aug. 1825): 104. Gale Databases: New Readerships. Web. 19 Feb. 2018.

Lundy, Daryl, comp. The Peerage: A Genealogical Survey of Britain as Well as the Royal Families of Europe. 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2018.

Sandford, Elmert G., ed. Memoirs of Archbishop Temple by Seven Friends. 2 vols. London: Macmillan and Co., 1906. Print.

Spooner, H. M., and Mark D. Chapman. 'Temple, Frederick (1821–1902), archbishop of Canterbury'. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 3 Jan. 2008. Oxford University Press. Web. 19 Feb. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/36451

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