Anthony Horner

HORNER FAMILY RESEARCH:

 

TONY HORNER © 2001

The research into the history of this family takes us back to a marriage in Newtown Linford, Leicestershire, on 10 Aug 1709, when Ascough Horner married Rebecca Fletcher of Howgates in the church there. Five baptism registrations follow, all at Newtown Linford:

Mary 3 July 1710

Rebecca 16 December 1712

Elizabeth 13 June 1714

Dorothy 1 February 1715/6 [Old Style/New Style]

Thomas 4 April 1719

Then Rebecca Horner of Howgates, wife of Ascough Horner, was buried on 14 or 24 [the first digit is indistinct] October 1724. Following that, on 12 July 1725, Ascough Horner, a widower of Newtown Linford, married (by Licence) Mary King of Market Harborough, a single woman [“aged 38 or thereabouts” according to the Marriage Bond] at Great Bowden.

The next relevant entry in the PR of Newtown Linford is the baptism of Ascough, son of Ascough Horner on 14 November 1726. Unlike the first five baptisms, there is no mention of the mother’s name. It would be easy to assume that Ascough junior was a child of the second marriage, except that he married Mary Brown of Mount Sorrell at Rothley on 23 March 1740/41. If he had been born in November 1726, he would have been only 14 years 4 months old when he married in 1741! That possibility seems most unlikely, so we must assume that he was not baptised until about five years after his birth; perhaps his mother had a prolonged illness leading up to her death in 1724 and his baptism was overlooked. According to the IGI, which has eight pages of Horners in Leicestershire, there were no other Ascoughs around at that time other than the father and son.

Mary Brown must have been about two months pregnant at the time of the marriage, since Conyers, son of Ascough and Mary Horner of Mount Sorrell, was baptised at Rothley on 10 November 1741.

NOTE: All the above events were extracted by me from the relevant Leicestershire PRs. The Newtown Linford PR was checked back as far as 1670, but without finding any other Horner entries. I also saw the Marriage Bond or Licence relating to Ascough senior’s second marriage, and secured a photocopy of the PR page upon which the marriage was registered. The forenames Ascough and Conyers are so unusual that some explanation seems appropriate. Both are actually surnames, and were most likely the maiden names of the maternal grandmother of the child to whom they were first given. Conyers is a well-known surname dating back to the 12th century in England, being derived from the Old French coignier, a coiner or minter of money, or from the place-name Coignières in France. [Reany & Wilson: A Dictionary of English Surnames (Oxford, 1997) p 108.] The name Ascough, also spelled Ayscough or Askow, is a form of the better-known surname Askew or Askey. The forms Aykescoghe, Ascowe, Ascogh and Askew are found in the 14th and 15th centuries; William Ayscough appears in the list of Freemen of the city of York in 1675. The name is derived from a place-name in the North Riding of Yorkshire: Aiskew. [Reany & Wilson, op. cit. p 16.] So the connection of our Horner forebears with Yorkshire is confirmed by the use of this rather strange forename.

To continue with the family history, on 20 September 1763 a marriage was solemnised at Wolverton, Buckinghamshire (just over the border with Northamptonshire and close to Potterspury and its hamlet of Yardley Gobion) between a certain Conyers Horner and Jane Abbot. This must certainly be the same Conyers – there could not be two men with such an unusual name! Their first child was baptised at the parish church in Potterspury on 1 July 1764 and named William.

The Horners seem to have made their home at Yardley Gobion for the next 100 years or so. It would appear that Conyers’ wife Jane must have died, since the only other entries in the baptismal register refer to his wife as Hannah. Conyers’ name appears in the records of the Grafton Estate in 1764, 1768, 1772, 1773, & 1777, as one of those ‘persons within the Constablewick of Yardley Gobion who owe suit and service to the Court Leet & Court Baron of the Most Noble Augustus Henry, Duke of Grafton’ – to quote the suit roll of 23 April 1768 (Ref. G 3530a). He is not mentioned in the intervening years, so perhaps his work took him to other areas; and nor does he appear in the rent records of the Duke of Grafton.

Conyers’ son William must have married three times, although so far I have not found any of the marriage registrations. I have searched through most of the PRs and transcripts relating to the south west of the county in my search for members of the Parbery family. Also, the ‘Bollen Blore’ marriage index has been investigated, but to no avail. However, thanks to Mrs. Janet Dengate (Denlo Park, 127 Oakvale Road, Cundletown, NSW 2430, Australia), I have a copy of an Australian Death Registration relating to Conyers’ grandson, also named William. (I will refer to these two as William senior and William junior). I believe the this Death Registration clears up the matter of William senior’s marriages; but first of all, let me set out what I found in the Parish Register (PR) of St. Nicholas’ church at Potterspury:

In 1787 William junior was baptised, son of William senior and Elizabeth. In 1789 (and in 1790) Sarah was baptised, daughter of William senior and Mary; (the first Sarah was buried in 1790). In 1793, 1798, 1801, & 1806 respectively, Phoebe, Jinny [Jane], John and Joseph were baptised, children of William senior and Letitia/Lettice. There is some evidence from the PR that Mary and Letitia were both married, sequentially, to the same William: Letitia died in January 1836, aged 73, and the register says she was buried ‘with her infant grandson John Woodward’. The John Woodward in question (who, incidentally, was buried only five days after being baptised) was actually the great grandson of Mary; but of course Letitia was now in the place of the deceased Mary.

William senior, son of Conyers, is recorded in one register entry as a Paper Maker; there was a paper mill at Yardley Gobion. Was it this same William who, in 1841, lived with the Sharp household and described himself as a Hawker? There is no other William Horner in the records that I have examined. His burial, in 1843 at age 80, says he was ‘from the Workhouse’ at Yardley Gobion. His son William junior (by Elizabeth) must have been the Manager of Alderton Brick Kiln in 1832, (Alderton being a village next to Yardley Gobion). There is a ledger in the Northamptonshire Record Office, which contains records of brick and tile products sold in that year by one William Horner. The Horner family had connections with brickmaking at various times during the 19th century, although there will have been times when the brickworks at Alderton was not functioning. For instance, in 1841, William junior describes himself as an Agricultural Labourer. William junior married Sarah, by whom he had eight children: Joseph, Sarah, Noah, Eliza, Henry, Mary-Ann, Betsey [Elizabeth], and Ellen.

 

William junior, together with most of his family, emigrated to New South Wales in 1848. His wife Sarah died the previous year. His son Henry remained in England, presumably because he was settled in a job or a marriage or both. He is recorded in the census of 1881 as a Brickmaker in Farnborough, Warwickshire. Two groups emigrated in the same year. The first, in the sailing ship “Fairlie”, comprised Noah & his family, Joseph (a widiwer) with his two children, Sarah (who had married Thomas Bliss) with her family, and George aged 21, a nephew of William. They reached Sydney on 7 August 1848. Then William and his daughters Mary-Ann and Ellen embarked in the “Charlotte Jane”, reaching Sydney on 8 October 1848. I have been provided with a massive amount of information about these families and their descendants by Ronald Dayman (18 Forrest Road, Swan View, WA 6056, Australia), and Clive Houlsby (32 Apps Avenue, Turramurra, NSW 2074, Australia).

Now let us examine the evidence provided by the Australian Death Registration, which contains the following information:

 

Ref. 4038/151

Date & place of death: 4th August 1867. Raglan, Roxburgh.

Name & occupation: William Horner, Brickmaker.

Sex & age: Male, 82 years.

Cause of death: Senility.

Name & occupation of father: William Horner, Papermaker.

Name & maiden surname of mother: Letitia Nasbey.

Informant: Joseph Horner, Brickmaker, Kelso, Roxburgh.

Particulars of registration: 6th Aug. 1867, Bathurst.

Buried at Kelso, 6th August 1867, by William Lisle, Minister of the Church of England.

Where born: Yardley Gobbin [sic], Northamptonshire England.

How long in Australian Colonies or States: Nearly 19 years in New South Wales.

Place of marriage, age, & to whom: England; unknown; Sarah Pearcey.

Children of marriage: Joseph 51; Sarah 47; Mary Ann 35; Ellen 30; one male deceased.

 

The deceased son referred to was Noah, the ancestor of my Australian informant; his widow, Hannah, married Noah’s widowed brother Joseph. Added to the information provided by Letitia’s burial registration, mentioned above, I believe that William’s death registration solves the problem of the marriages of William senior, son of Conyers. William junior was his son by his first wife, and the fact that he was the stepson of Letitia, William senior’s third wife, is not the sort of detail that would be remembered 75 years later. William senior and Letitia brought up the children of three marriages, and Letitia would be remembered as their mother.

To continue now with William senior and Letitia, their daughter Phoebe had a daughter (baptised in 1821) and a son (baptised in 1824) by different fathers. She married the father of her son in 1825. William and Letitia’s second daughter Jinny (Jane) had three illegitimate children by different fathers. She married James Atkins in 1826. Her eldest daughter, also called Jane, also had three illegitimate children, all sons. The names of the fathers are not recorded, although the oldest was given a middle name of Adams; the other two were baptised in 1847 in the Workhouse ‘sons of Jane Horner single woman’. In 1845 this Jane married Joseph Atkins, thus further emulating her mother! In 1871 Jane Atkins, a widow, was living with her son John Horner. In 1891 she called herself Jane Horner; she was buried the same year under the name Jane Atkins.

 

William (senior) and Letitia’s third child, John, died at 30 years of age – apparently without issue. Their fourth child was Joseph, a Brickmaker; he was my 2xgreat grandfather. In 1826 he married Lucy Hillyer; she bore him two children and then died in 1829, aged 23. In April 1831 Joseph married Mary Ratlidge Bland, and the parish register records seven baptisms between 1831 and 1847: Frederic(k), Lucy, Thomas, Alfred, Mary, Joseph, and Anna (Hannah) Letitia.

Frederick married Sarah Ann Foster at the Potterspury Independent Meeting House on Christmas Day in 1856, and he and Sarah had ten children between 1857 and 1882; the seventh was Herbert John, born 5 November 1873, who was my grandfather. Frederick’s occupation was recorded in 1851 as Brickmaker, on his marriage certificate and at the 1861 Census as Shoemaker, and in 1871, 1881, & 1891 as Brickmaker at Alderton. The last census gives his address as ‘Brickyard Cottage’; and it was at ‘Grafton Brickyard’ that Frederick died on 29 March 1904. The Brickyard was situated between Alderton and Grafton Regis, but in the parish of the former, and included two cottages. The owners of the brickyard (T Foxley & Son also of Mapledurham Mills, Reading) called it ‘Grafton Regis Brick Works’.

 

 

Census 1981	Brickyard Cottage				Alderton	Where Born
		Age
Name	Rel	M	F		Occupation
Frederick Horner	Head	59			Brickmaker	Northants,  Yardley Gobion
Sara A Horner	Wife		56			Northants,  Blisworth
E H Giles Horner	Daughter		28			Northants,  Alderton
Walter H Horner	Son	20			Labourer	Northants,  Alderton
Herbert J Horner	Son	18			Labourer	Northants,  Alderton
Ernest R Horner	Son	8			Scholar	Northants,  Alderton
Margaret G Horner	Daughter		3mth			Northants,  Alderton

(Other children not included here but on other census were Mary Jane 1857, Alfred 1860, George Thomas 1865, Charles Frederick 1868.
B.Pittam .)