Fourth Generation - Thomas Horner

Thomas Horner, the father of George Horner, was born in 1786 in Pateley Bridge Parish ^[1] .  He was the second son of Thomas and Anne Horner of Whitehouses. He joined his elder brother William, aged three, and his sister Ann who was eighteen months old [2] . With three children under three, their mother Anne would have had a task looking after them all. When he was two years old his brother John arrived.

The family lived in Whitehouses, which was a small hamlet in High Bishopside, a mile East of Pateley Bridge. Thomas’s father Thomas was probably a weaver, weaving linen cloth for the local flax mills in Glass House, Smelt House and Low Laithe which were all within a couple of miles of Whitehouses.

Between 1788 and 1790 the whole family moved a couple of miles from Whitehouses to Wilsill a township in High and Low Bishopside. Wilsill was closer to Glasshouses where there was one flax mill and Smelthouse where there were three flax mills. In fact Wilsill is described in 1834 as a village where linen weaving was the major occupation [3] .

It is likely that Thomas Horner was a linen weaver, and this move may have provided more opportunities for earning a living. The move may have coincided with the new factory near Wilsill, which provided more opportunities for weaving. Being nearer to the flax mills may also have provided opportunities for his young children to be engaged in spinning flax to help eke out the family living. It is also possible that Ann Horner was also involved in the family industry in their cottage in Wilsill. There may also have been a tied cottage available at a reasonable rent, which may have helped the move.

Whatever the reason for the move Thomas’s youngest brother Michael was born in Wilsill [4] . Thomas’s mother Anne had borne five children in seven years, and also moved her household a few miles. She may also have been working at home spinning as part of the early domestic system. Five months after giving birth to Michael, Anne became ill and died. She may have died as a result of complications resulting from childbirth. Anne’s young children and her mourning husband Thomas would have had to lay her to rest only two days after Christmas [5] . Their Christmas cannot have been a festive occasion, as Anne was probably sickening or even dying during this period. Anne left seven-year-old William, five-year-old Anne, four-year-old Thomas, two-year old John and her five-month-old baby. Although Thomas was only two and would not understand his mother leaving him, the results would have been only too obvious.

It is surprising that his father Thomas Horner did not immediately marry to provide a mother figure for his children. This suggests that he had a good support network for his family, through relatives or friends. His brother James and his wife Peggy lived in Wilsill with two young children and his mother and father lived in Whitehouses. Unsurprisingly, five-month-old Michael began to fail and was buried in April of the next year aged nine months [6] . Thomas and his siblings would have had to watch the small coffin being lowered into the graveyard of Pateley Bridge Church as daffodils and crops were beginning to grow. It may have been this sequence of tragic events that pushed Thomas Horner’s father to move his young family away from Wilsill to the Craven area.

The Move to Wharfe

It is not certain why Thomas Horner and his family moved to Wharfe, near Austwick, from Pateley Bridge, but work in the new mill may have brought them to Wharfe in 1792. In the late eighteenth century, cotton Mills were built in the area surrounding Austwick. However, there were cotton mills in Hollin House Mill and  Wreaks nearer to Wilsill and there may have been family connections with the Settle area. The move from linen weaving to cotton manufacture may have been explained by the dramatic increase in wages at the end of the eighteenth century.

By 1792 Thomas Horner, senior, had a large family of potential workers in the new cotton industry. William, aged nine, Ann aged seven, Thomas aged six and John aged four would all have been old enough to work as carders or spinners in the cotton mills. The early cotton industry depended on children working in the factories, before the introduction of the Factory Acts beginning in 1802, which limited their hours of work.  Four children would have added at least two shillings a week to Thomas’s family income. As a handloom weaver he may have received a wage sufficient to care for the children and they may have been involved in the domestic weaving system at home.  Thomas may have moved his family to an area in need of such workers who would help to eke out the household wages. William Horner, Thomas’s eldest son, would have been of an age to oversee the younger children in a factory and save the need for child minding. It is therefore highly probable that Thomas Horner junior and his brothers and sister worked in the early mills in Austwick. The crisis in 1792 of the linen industry may have precipitated the move to the cotton industry by Thomas Horner senior.

The earliest Cotton spinning Mill at Clapham was built in 1786 by four partners, three of whom originated from Nidderdale, so there may be a connection here, which brought the Horners from Wilsill to the Austwick [7] .  Armitstead and Company also bought Ingleton Mill, and ran cotton mills at Rathmell from 1793-1797 [8] . However, both Ingleton and Clapham Mills were put up for sale in 1807 and did not spin cotton again until 1837 [9] . By 1792, Austwick Mill had been built for spinning cotton in the village of Wharfe in the township of Austwick [10] . In 1807 a Thomas Lister Parker, of Browsholme, bought Clapham Mill for flax spinning. This Thomas Lister Parker had sold the manor of Slaidburn to George Horner of Grindlelton in 1800 [11] .  However, the Horners were resident in Austwick by 1803 and this connection was not the definitive pull factor to Austwick.

Working in the Factories

Thomas spent at least the first four years of his life in Pateley Bridge, before his family moved to the township of Wharfe in Austwick, in Clapham Parish.  He may also have lived in Arncliffe and Ingleton and worked in the local cotton mills there to contribute to the family income [12] . As a factory worker Thomas would have begun work at 5.30am and then have worked carding or bobbin weaving until 8am when they would be given a forty-minute break for breakfast when Thomas would have drunk weak tea and a little bread [13] . At 12pm the engines in the factories would stop and Thomas would be given an hour for his lunch. He may have gone home for lunch and have eaten boiled potatoes, perhaps with a little bacon.

He would return to work at 1pm and then work until eight or nine in the evening without a break. Perhaps he would be given twenty minutes ‘baggin’ time for tea and bread. Thomas may have worked in the textile industry from a very young age, perhaps three years old, as a bobbin winder, until 1802. He would certainly have worked in the mills from the age of nine and earned a shilling a week as a scavenger in the spinning rooms, for a nine hour day, rising to two shillings a week for working as a piecer or a carder, by the time he was fourteen, for a fifteen hour day. His wage may have risen to four shillings a week when he reached sixteen when he probably began to work as a weaver.

 Life in the factory at such a young age may have affected his health quite badly. He may have had a limb bent and flat arches, or even been pigeon-chested with curvature of the spine [14] . Even if he had managed to avoid these deformities brought about by limited movement in cramped conditions, he may have had some kind of digestive problem and may have suffered from diarrhea at some point. The temperature in the cotton mills was kept very high, 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and the air kept moist so that it was easier to spin the cotton fibres. Such conditions would at the very least cause colds and catarrh, from the extreme change in temperatures. Working in such a climate it is not surprising that mill workers wore light clothing and often did not wear shoes. As a young worker Thomas would probably have worked in the cleaning department, cleaning the raw cotton from foreign materials. This blowing and scotching would have resulted in much dust which he would have breathed in. Even when Thomas moved on to become a carder he would have again been subject to a lot of cotton dust. He may therefore  have suffered from bisinosis, or an inflammation of the lungs.

The Horners were weavers and had been living in Austwick Township at least since 1803 ^[15] . Thomas Horner’s father Thomas and his eldest brother William were both recorded in the Muster Rolls of Austwick Township that year, as weavers. It is highly probable that they were handloom weavers profiting from the need for cloth during the Napoleonic Wars. Thomas would be just too young to be recorded, as he had not yet reached his seventeenth birthday when the muster rolls were taken. The Horners were probably all working in the cloth industry and held no smallholding, as there are no Horners recorded as voters in Austwick or Clapham in the 1807 registers of electors.

In 1803, it is perfectly possible that Thomas Horner, senior, was weaving cloth at home for the Mill in Austwick and he may even have been able to make a tidy profit from the occupation. He may have begun as a linen, worsted or woolen weaver and then changed to cotton when it became more profitable during the Napoleonic wars, especially after the crisis in the flax industry in 1792. The closure of Clapham Mill would not really have affected his livelihood as he may have also woven cloth for Austwick Mill, or he may have been weaving cloth for both factories up until 1807. Clapham Mill continued to produce flax from 1807 until 1837 and Thomas Horner Senior could have woven cloth for these mills. Weavers were independent and could work for many different spinners.

In 1783, the Langcliffe High Mill was adapted for Cotton spinning by three Lancashire men, George and William Clayton and R Walshman. They already had a large cotton factory in Keighley [16] . If, however, the Horner brothers worked here there is a high probability that they would have originated from Keighley or Lancashire rather than from Pateley Bridge, as Clayton and Walshman brought their night workers in from Keighley. Bridge End Mill in Settle span cotton from 1785-95 run by Williamson, Buck Jay and co.  Runley Bridge Mill in Settle was built by James Brennand 1788-95 [17] .

The Birkbeck Connection

The Birkbecks of Settle had long been involved in the textile trade, by the end of the seventeenth century the Birkbecks employed 200 in wool combing alone which they put out to local homes around Settle. By the end of the eighteenth century, they had bought Giggleswick Mill and converted it to a spinning Mill. By 1794, they had a warehouse at Skipton handling 3,000 packs of wool a year where it was stored pending sorting, combing and spinning at the family mills in Linton and Addingham [18] . They also manufactured worsted in Skipton in 1829. They made stuffs, half shalloons and calimancoes. The Birkbecks were also bankers and in 1791, William Birkbeck, William Alcock and John Peart set up the Craven Bank at Settle and Skipton [19] . This William Birkbeck owned factories in Linton, and Melrose and Montrose in Scotland as well as Settle and Bentham [20] .

Thomas and his father and brothers may have worked for the Birkbeck family based in Settle. The Birkbecks farmed out wool to be combed by local families, and moved the wool to warehouses in Skipton by the end of the eighteenth century. If so, Thomas and his family may have worked at home as part of the Domestic system. Initially the Cotton industry in Yorkshire also used handloom weavers, and used the same networks as the older Worsted and Woolen industries. If Thomas Horner was a weaver in Austwick in 1803, it is perfectly possible that he may have woven cotton as well as worsted, wool or even linen. It appears to have been relatively easy to learn to weave and also for weavers to change from weaving worsted cloth to cotton cloth [46] .

William Horner, Gunsmith, of Settle

Whatever the reason for the move, the Horner family seemed to thrive in the Settle area. Thomas’s eldest brother William Horner was a weaver when he married Jane Leach in 1803 [47] . William settled initially in Wharfe, and was probably employed in the cotton mill. By 1810 he had moved his family two miles to Lawkland. However, he did not settle, and three years later moved another couple of miles to Feizor. By this time his eldest son Thomas Horner had died aged eleven in 1817 [48] .  After moving to Lawkland by 1829, nearly ten years later William returned to Feizor. Here he lost his son George Horner, aged one in 1830 [49] . In 1833 William also lost his son Anthony Horner aged six [50] .

By 1841 William was a tinner in Langcliffe and in 1844 he was a gunsmith master in Settle and had premises in the market square [51] . In 1844 he is recorded in the tithe applotment of Settle as a tenant [52] . William was also a voter in the 1848 election for the Austwick district, even though he is recorded as living in Settle [53] . William must therefore have held land in freehold to the value of 40 shillings in Austwick. This land must have been gained between 1807 and 1848, as there are no Horners recorded as voters in Austwick in this period.

William Horner was recorded in the Muster Rolls of 1803 for Austwick as a weaver, but had obviously changed occupation by 1841 [54] . William also moved around the Settle area from Austwick to Feizor, Shade, and Giggleswick and finally Settle. William and Jane had eleven children all born in the townships of Austwick and Settle [55] .  William died in June 1866 at the grand old age of eighty-two [56] . His eldest surviving son William was born in Wharfe in the township of Austwick and stayed in the local area, in Lawkland and was an agricultural labourer [57] . William’s son James was a male servant in the household of an Anthony Stackhouse in Settle in 1841 [58] . By 1848, James may have owned land as a James Horner appears as an elector for Settle in this year. This means he would have had a 40/- freehold.  William’s son John settled in Langcliffe and Shade and had three daughters and his family all worked in the cotton trade as spinners or weavers [59] . William’s son Robert was a twiner and brazier in Langcliffe in 1851 [60] .

William’s son Michael was a tinner and brazier in Settle by 1841 [61] . Michael discovered Victoria Cave near Settle in 1837, when he was working for Joseph Jackson a local plumber in Back Lane (now Castle Hill) [62] . In 1857 Michael was described as a tinplate worker and musical instrument maker in the market place [63] . By 1861, Michael was established in the Market Place as a grinder and brazier. William’s son Thomas was a printer in 1851 in Giggleswick employing one man, and by 1861 set up by in the Market Place in Settle [64] .

Thomas Horner’s sons Michael and Anthony set up the first photographers in Settle in 1858 [65] . In an advertisement in the Settle Chronicle of August 1864 Michael Horner, Junior, Photographer, 'has commenced the business at his father's address, Market Place Settle.' 'Michael Horner having spent four months in one of the leading Photographic Studios in Manchester...' His father Thomas was advertising his painting, gilding and glazing business at the same time. Although the Manchester Photographic Society was founded in 1855 the science was so new and evolving at such a pace that formal training was unlikely to have been available. The Post Office Trade Directories of 1857 show that Michael Horner was a tinplate worker and musical instrument maker with premises situated in the Market Place.

There were many advertisements in the Settle Chronicle in the 1860s showing that Michael in 1865 'has now received a very complete set of first-rate accessories to his Gallery...' and that stereoscopic and card views of many local places were available at one shilling (5p) each. The 1867 directories (PO and Kelly) show Michael as a photographer and Thomas and James Horner (who were his brothers) as painters and house decorators, all in the Market Place. The development of plates by the wet chemical method involved noxious chemicals used in the confines of a small tent on a tripod and it is possibly as a result of ingestion of fumes that Michael died so early at the age of 26(in 1869, gravestone in Settle Parish Churchyard) although the official reason was phthisis (consumption) suffered for the previous two years. Last advertisement appeared in Wildman's Household Almanac of 1869 offering a wide range of products. Michael's brothers James (born 1849) and Anthony (1853-1923) are described as photographers in the 1871 census.

Anthony was only 16 when he took over the business from his brother Michael in 1869 with little experience but succeeded, using a handcart to transport the heavy equipment using glass plates up to 10 by 8 inches in size. Anthony married Elizabeth Ann Holmes of Bentham (1865-1948). She was a Quaker and Anthony became one too. The Post Office Directory of 1877 noted Anthony as photographer in the Market Place, as well as uncle Michael the tinplate worker and brother Thomas the painter, paper-hanger, sign writer and general decorator. The 1881 census shows Anthony and Thomas Horner located in the Market Place. In 1898 Anthony moved the business to New Street, now Station Rd., Settle to a new studio (the shop at no. 7); all the family moved there too. 

In 1844, a Michael Horner and a Thomas Horner tenanted the Town Hall in Settle [66] . The Horners occupied the northwest corner of the Town Hall building.  Thomas Horner was a painter and paperhanger also with a shop in the Market Place. They shared the tenancy with George Hayhurst, William Brennand, (Parish Clerk), William Bilton, (saddler), John Taylor, (Plasterer), and William Foster, (attorney) [67] . William Brennand also later in 1837 had an academy on Duke Street, and he may be related to Thomas Brennand who was cotton spinner and manufacture in Settle in 1823 and 1837 [68] .  Michael Horner can only be the son of William Horner, gunsmith master, as he would be aged about thirty-one in 1844 and of an age to have his own business [69] . Michael Horner’s brother Thomas (son of William the gunsmith master) was living in Langcliffe in 1844 when his son was born.  Another Thomas Horner,a Power loom weaver, son of John Horner was living in Giggleswick in 1851 and from the births of his children does not appear to have moved [70] . The only logical explanation is that Thomas Horner recorded in the town hall is the brother of Michael Horner, tinner and brazier [71] . As Thomas is also printer and sets up as a printer in settle by 1861, this may be the man.

John Horner of Settle

Thomas’s younger brother John Horner married his first wife Jane Hardacre in Giggleswick in 1814 and was a handloom weaver [72] . John and Jane Horner had a family of six children, but only three survived [73] . John's first wife Jane died in 1824, probably as a complication of childbirth [73a] . Within a year John Horner had married Isabella Harrison in 1825 [73b] . John and Isabella had three children by 1830 when Isabella also died from complications from childbirth [73c] . Unlike his brother William, John and his wife married and settled in Giggleswick town, probably as they were near to their source of work. He may have had connections with the Armitsteads and Brennands as they were witnesses to his marriages, but the connection is as yet unproven. In 1841 John is living in Giggleswick with his third wife Jane and three of his children, and his first grandchild John. However, by 1851 John was unable to work and is described in the census returns as a pauper [74] . His sons Thomas and John were both power loom weavers, and this may provide an explanation.  John Horner died in September 1872 aged 61 [75] .  If John Horner were a handloom weaver, he would have been pushed out of the job market by the new machines.

            Thomas’s cousin Michael Horner may have been involved in the saddlery trade and married Betty Whittam of the currier trade [76] . In 1837, a Matthew Whitham is recorded as a currier on Duke Street in Settle, and Betty Whitham appears to have been his sister [81] . It is possible that the Michael Horner recorded as a Fell monger in Cottingley in Bingley Parish in 1822-1823 is this Michael Horner [77] . A Fellmonger sold animal hides and was later known as a leatherer [78] . His leather works were based at Cottingley Mill [79] . However Michael was declared bankrupt in 14 August 1827 and the Mill later became a worsted business, by 1834 [80] .In 1841 Michael was living in Austwick and was a tanner [83] .

       Michael appears to have moved quite frequently. He settled in Cottingley in Bingley from 1817 to 1828 [82] .  The Michael Horner, tanner of Cottingley would therefore appear to have married into the trade [84] . Michael Horner died in Settle in 1853 [85] . Michael’s son Whittam was a painter’s apprentice in 1841 in the household of John Wildmans, a bookseller in Settle [87] .

Thomas Horner Marries Esther Howson

Thomas Horner had married Esther Howson, on 25 August 1813 in the parish of Clapham ^[88] . Thomas and Esther settled in Wharfe in the township of Austwick and there they had their two eldest sons George and Mark [89] . Thomas’s sister Ann or Nancy married William Thistlewood in October 1814 in Clapham. Thomas, Esther and their seven-month-old son George were at the wedding and Thomas was a witness [90] .

In 1813 Thomas was working as a weaver. He may have found his days in the early factories numbered as he reached fourteen or fifteen and had reverted back to the occupation that he must have been a part of in his youth. In the early factories not many men were employed at all as cheaper more nimbler labour could be found in child workers. As it was thought that ‘workmen over a certain age were difficult to manage [91] .’

As a handloom weaver he may have been able to earn enough in the years 1813-15 to provide for his family, but this may not have lasted for long, as in 1815 after the end of the Napoleonic wars the need for cloth declined and handloom weavers found their income undermined. By 1815, there was so much competition for yarn that Cotton Spinners provided weaving sheds for local weavers where they provided the yarn and weft threads for the weavers. After 1815, Thomas may have worked in the Worsted industry in Austwick. Thomas and his family may have worked in Austwick, situated in the weaving shed on the outskirts of the village, or woven worsted cloth from wool and cotton at home [92] . He may have spent many hours in cramped conditions for small rewards.

As a handloom weaver, he would have earned 4d for weaving about thirty yards of cloth. His children would have been involved in the process. The cotton wool forming the weft would have been picked clean by the youngest children, to separate the coarser and lighter fibres [93] .. Then the cotton was carded to remove all tangles and align all the cotton fibres in parallel lines, first in a fleecy web and then in a riband form [94] The cotton would then be drawn out and doubled to complete the process and ensure the quality of the fibres [95] . The drawings would then be subject to the roving procedure whereby the fibres would be attenuated with very little twist. Then the cotton would be subject to fine roving and stretching by a fine bobbin and fly frame or on a mule. Then the cotton would be spun by his wife Esther and the girls. Then Thomas would have woven the yarn himself perhaps with his eldest sons [96] . However, Thomas may have been dependent on the provision of linen warp by the local manufacturers and his loom may have stood idle for some weeks at a time.

By 1818, Thomas had moved to Austwick where their third son John Horner was born [97] . The move may have been when Thomas finally decided to work as a weaver in one of the many weaving sheds in Austwick, and gave up working in the mill in Wharfe. Their remaining five daughters, Ann, Elizabeth, Mary, Margaret and Harriet were all born in Austwick and christened in Clapham Parish [98] . Thomas and his family remained in Austwick until 1828 and then sometime between 1828 and 1834 they moved to Skipton [99] . By 1824 Thomas may have woven cloth at home, but it is highly likely that his children were employed in the local cotton mills.

As a hand-loom weaver Thomas’s profits had declined from those in 1792 when cotton manufacture was at its highest to 4d a  piece by 1824.  If he had worked as a weaver in the early cotton mills he could have earned fifteen shillings a week for weaving. His children, George aged ten, Mark aged nine, John aged six, Ann aged four and Elizabeth aged three would all have been old enough to work as carders or spinners in Austwick cotton mill, or help at home with the weaving of worsted, wool or cotton. Their wages of fifteen shillings a week with his wife’s wages of twelve shillings would have brought in a princely sum of twenty-eight shillings. This was barely over a  pound a week and shows how Thomas’s wages had deteriorated since the turn of the century. Perhaps Thomas decided to capitalise on the increased earning capacity of his children and move to a new area. This decision to move must have been made before the 1833 Factory Act made the employment of children undermine illegal for all textile factories, as with only two children able to earn the move to Skipton may not have been economic. It is highly probable that Thomas had been offered a responsible position, which brought in the monies that his family needed to survive.

By 1825 Thomas may have found that the rewards for weaving at home were being undermined by the introduction of power looms in the local Cotton factories in the Settle area, which resulted in a depression in the cotton industry. This began in the Austwick area in 1821 when John Armitstead of Clapham, cotton spinner was declared bankrupt [100] . By 1826 there was considerable discontent among the handloom-weavers of north-west England [101] . In some parts of Lancashire this resulted in riots, loss of life and severe punishments, including transportation to Australia. On 14 April 1826 it had been suggested by some of the mill-owners in Burnley, that the local Overseers of the Poor might provide support for the weavers. Unfortunately they were too late as riots swept the area within a fortnight. In Austwick, however, the troubles seem to have been averted by the foresight of some local leaders: George Clapham, William Batty, James Burton, Joseph Willis, Leonard Chapman, Richard Baynes and Charles Ingleby. They formed a committee "to enquire into and purchase warps and weft and also to employ what number of looms they think proper in each house". A thousand pounds was to be raised to carry on the work. The purpose was to set up a co-operative to employ the poor handloom-weavers in their own trade of weaving cotton pieces. This happened in March 1826, a month before Burnley's failures. At the end of 1827, 6,135 cotton pieces had been woven in Austwick at a cost to the Poor Rate of £54, a subsidy that amounted to just over two pence (2d) per piece.

Thomas Horner would have received the subsidy of 2d a piece from the Austwick overlookers, but perhaps he had seen the writing on the wall and decided to move to an area of employment whilst he was still able to. The accounts of the Overseer of the Poor in 1835, record the rebuilding of a weaving-shop at the expense of the Parish [102] . However by that time Thomas and his family would have moved to Skipton. The building of the Union Workhouse at Castlebergh in Giggleswick in the 1830's led to changes, the Austwick weaving-shops being sold in 1839, most of the proceeds going towards Austwick's share of the cost of building the new Workhouse.  These developments, or knowledge of them, may have been the final determining factor that forced Thomas and his family to move.

By 1835, Cotton manufacture at Austwick Mill ended and if the Horners had worked for this mill, they would have needed to move elsewhere to ply their trade. However, there were plenty of Cotton Mills running in 1835 in Settle and Langcliffe and the surrounding area and perhaps the Horners moved initially to Settle before moving to Skipton [103] . Langcliffe Mill had added cotton weaving to its processes by 1833 and it is possible that George and his father worked there.

The Move to Skipton

If the Horners were initially Worsted weavers, they may have moved to Skipton after John Dewhurst built his steam powered Worsted spinning and weaving mills in 1828 in Belle Vue Road in Skipton [104] . These worsted mills were burnt down in 1831 and rebuilt as cotton spinning mills. This would have been an ideal time for Thomas Horner to move his family, as the youngest daughter, Harriet, would have been three years old and of an age to begin work in the cotton mills with her mother, until 1833. The depression in the handloom weaving industry may also have pushed Thomas into working in the mills before the move to Skipton.

Thomas Horner is recorded as an Overlooker on the marriage certificate of his son George, and he may have been an Overlooker of weavers in Dewhursts’ new steam powered cotton mills. Overlookers were steady respectable people. However, Thomas would have needed some experience of working in cotton mills to obtain the role and it is highly likely that he gained this experience in the mills in Austwick. Alternatively, the Horners may have moved to work at Linton Mill, which in 1830 was owned by the Birkbecks and was a Worsted Mill [105] . The Birkbecks did have connections with the Settle area. Added to the opportunities for work, the route from Austwick to Skipton would have been easier with the opening of the new road from Skipton to Gargrave in 1832 [106] .

            Alternatively, Thomas Horner may simply have been attracted to Skipton by the new opportunities for work it offered in the first half of the nineteenth century. John Dewhurst founded Belle Vue Mills in Skipton in 1829, and was one of the first Mill owners in Skipton to introduce Power Looms in Cotton Mills in skipton ^[107] . It is probable that Thomas Horner moved to Skipton with the introduction of the new Power Looms. Thomas was a weaver, but it is not certain whether he was a handloom weaver or a machine weaver, or even whether he worked with cotton, wool or worsted. As a handloom weaver in 1841, he would only have been paid 4d for weaving about thirty yards of cloth, and producing ten such pieces would only gain him 3 shilling and 4 pence ^[108] . This was hardly enough to live on in 1841.

If Thomas had begun life as a handloom weaver, it would hardly be surprising if he had turned to the factories in later life to earn enough to support his wife and growing family. He may have worked in Dewhurst Cotton Mills at Belle Vue, or in J W Birkbecks Worsted Mill, which was situated on Commercial Street in 1821 ^[109] . Both Mills would have been within easy walking distance of Millfields. Alternatively, he may have worked at Mr. James Wilson’s Worsted Mill, built in 1822, which gave the name Millfields to the lands surrounding it ^[110] . If Thomas had been a Worsted weaver, it is highly probable that he could have worked in the early worsted industry in Skipton. However, by 1832 he would have been an Overlooker in the mill rather than a hand or power loom weaver. On the other hand the Worsted Mill in Millfields was occupied in the 1840s by Messrs Mason and Hallam, worsted Spinners and this may have been Thomas Horner’s place of employment ^[111] . The High Mills owned by the Sidgewick’s, span cotton, but the Sidgewick’s opened the Low Mills, on Sackville Street, in 1839 for weaving and weft spinning of Cotton ^[112] . As George Horner and his siblings were later recorded as Cotton weavers, Thomas Horner probably worked in Belle Vue Mills. Even if Thomas had begun life as a Worsted weaver, he could ave easily picked up the skills to work in the cotton industry.

Thomas Horner the Overlooker

            As an Overlooker Thomas Horner would have had to have had a firm grasp of applied mathematics and an eye for detail. As Overlooker he would have been responsible for the correct working of machinery, and in the new steam powered factories this would have included the mill gearing, ensuring that the carding and drawing machines were calibrated properly and knowledge of the different quality of yarns and how to mix them to produce the different types of cloth [113] . This was a respectable and quite stretching role. The overseer was also responsible for discipline in the factory, ensuring all the paperwork required under the new factory acts was completed and tallying hours worked and attendance.

In some of the Factory Enquiry Reports it is recorded that Overlookers beat children to ensure they followed the rules. This may have been Thomas Horner’s role, or he may have been a gentler Overlooker [114] . Before 1833 an Overlooker was expected to work long hours and to expect long hours from the child workers. The role required a literate and numerate man, and indicates that Thomas Horner had at least an elementary education. He may have worked in mills from an early age and been schooled in the factory schools. It was acknowledged by employers that the best workers were those who had been in the mills since an early age. To be an Overlooker in the 1830s implies that Thomas was well aware of each part of the process involved in factory production and had acquired that knowledge through practical first hand experience.

Whatever the reason for the move to Skipton, it was not a healthy one. Although it is fairly certain that the Horners would have been given a house which would have been completely fitted out with furniture, and rented for about 3 shillings and six pence a week [115] .  The Horners took up residence in Commercial Street, Skipton, by 1841. These were back-to-back small houses and may have contrasted sharply with their living conditions in Austwick. In 1836, Thomas’s eldest daughter Ann died in Skipton aged sixteen ^[116] . This is symptomatic of the move to towns in the early nineteenth century. On a happier note, Thomas Horner, weaver, was present at the wedding of his eldest son George to Elizabeth Bramley in Skipton, and saw the birth of his eldest grandchild Anne in 1837 [117] . Thomas may have begun life as a weaver but seems to have soon been an overlooker in the cotton mills in Skipton for which he would have earned about seventeen shillings a week [118] .

Weaving was considered to be a man’s job and it did require strength to move the shuttles in the large looms. However it would appear that Thomas was not able to weave by 1838 and is recorded as a spinner. This was usually seen as a woman’s job as it required less strength and power. Thomas may have been suffering from bisinosis and found that the deterioration of the lungs limited his capacity to work.  This debilitating illness did not have a disastrous effect on his family as by this time most were working and earning good livings. Thomas must have been in some pain for quite a while before his death in October 1837, and the cause of death was recorded as ‘an inflammation of the lungs’. This can only be bisinosis and was probably contracted during his youth working in the early cotton mills. Thomas died on 30th October 1838, just after his fifty-second birthday and was buried on 2 November 1838 in Skipton [119] . It would appear that he left his wife Esther well cared for as she is recorded as being of ‘Independent means’ in 1841, but all her children worked as weavers in Belle Vue Mills.