Thirlaway Family History

From one or more unidentified places named with Old English þyrel ‘gap hollow’ + weg ‘way’ perhaps denoting a hollow or sunken lane. Saint John's Beck, a stream running into Thirlmere (Cumb), was referred to in 1589 as a Ryver called thirlway Water: Place-Names of Cumb p. 36.

Perhaps a local pronunciation of Thirlwall (Northumb; see Thirlwell) as suggested by a reference to Bartram Armstrong of Thurleway in an indictment dated 1597 in Northumb Archives, but this has not been confirmed.