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4 unusual facts about Thomas Darley


Aldby Park

This family's best known member is Thomas Darley, brother of Jane Darley, who owned the celebrated Darley Arabian horse which is widely recognised as being the earliest ancestor of most of the world's thoroughbred race horses.

It was Henry Darley's son Richard who asked his own son Thomas to send the Darley Arabian from Aleppo, where Thomas was a merchant.

Thomas Darley

Although he never raced, he covered mares at Aldby Park from 1705 until 1719, and lived until the advanced age of 30.

The horse, a bay, was tall for an Arabian horse of the time was 15 hands when described by Darley in a letter to his brother dated 21 December 1703.



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