The father of Thomas Horner who moved to Austwick Parish was William Horner, son of Thomas and Anna Horner of Croft Lane or Cross Lane and Whitehouses Pateley Bridge [1] .

William Horner was the ninth and youngest son of Thomas Horner, yeoman, of Whitehouses and joined his sisters Sarah, eleven, Margaret, eight, Mary, six, and his brothers Jacob, nineteen, Thomas, sixteen, George, ten, Michael, four, and Joseph, one [2] . His older brothers and sisters had been born in Whitehouses, a small hamlet in High Bishopside, a mile East of Pateley Bridge. The family had moved to Cross Lane, or Cross Lane in Pateley Bridge by the time William was born in 1724.

He would have had lots of playmates and his mother Anna would have had her work cut out caring for them all. His father Thomas, probably had a smallholding and William would have helped with the animals and on the land from an early age. His father may also have engaged in the domestic textile industry and been involved in the linen weaving industry. It was quite common for yeomen farmers to supplement their income with cloth making.

William probably worked in the linen industry from an early age, perhaps helping his father and his older brothers from at least three years of age. By the time he was thirteen he would have been working on the loom at home.

In the same year that William was born, his eldest brother Jacob married a Tophan, Mary Tophan in 1724 in Linton [3] . James Horner was a miner and an innkeeper in Grassington [4] . He married and settled in Grassington until his death in 1761 [5] . Four years later, when William was four years old, his brother Thomas Horner, married Dorothy Tophan on 28 April 1729 in Linton [6] . William would have attended both of these weddings.

When William was only sixteen years old he lost his elder brother Michael, aged twenty, who was buried in April 1740 [7] . Four years later William lost his older brother Joseph, aged nineteen, and his father Thomas [8] . Aged only twenty William ad lost two elder brothers and his father. However, he could have been taken in by either of his brothers Thomas, settled in Church Bank, Pateley Bridge, or Jacob in Grassington. He may have continued with his linen weaving and probably found it to be a more lucrative profession than agricultural labour. But he may have decided to play it safe and become a serving man. His brother George Horner, ended up in difficult circumstances and perhaps William wanted to avoid this [9] .

Within a year, William had married. His first wife was Elizabeth Darwen and they married in Burnsall in 1745 [10] . On their marriage he is recorded as a 'servant man', and it appears that he entered domestic service perhaps to help with the family income. In Burnsall there were many families who would have needed a domestic servant, either as a farm labourer, or serving in one of the local gentries houses. At present it is not clear which kind of servant man William Horner was. It is highly probable that he was a farm 'servant'. On their marriage William would probably have had to leave domestic service to set up a family.

William and Elizabeth did not stay in Burnsall, but moved to Pateley Bridge Parish to Forthings and Riggs, north of Bewerley [11] . There they had one son Thomas in October 1745 who died before he was a month old [12] . .Elizabeth may also have passed away as a result of complications in childbirth shortly after this. William was only twenty-one and must have found this to be a tragic blow.

	William Horner of Pateley Bridge
Thomas born 1745	James born 1752	Michael born 1755	William born 1757	Thomas born 1760	Mary born 1764	John born 1767

William married Mary Allanson in Ripon in 1754 as his second wife [13] .Their witnesses William and Judith Hebden (nee Grange) had recently been married on 23 May at which William Horner and John Weatherhead were witnesses [14] . This would indicate that William Horner and William Hebden were fairly close.

William and Mary had a large family of five boys and one daughter Mary [15] . William was a linen weaver providing cloth for the local chapmen.To support such a large family he must have found that business was fairly good. All children from this second marriage survived childhood and entered adulthood, which indicates that they had a fairly healthy upbringing. In 1779 William lost his mother Anna who was buried in 1779 in Whitehouses aged ninety-eight [16] . Seven years later in 1786 he lost his son Michael aged thirty-one, and in 1790 he lost his only daughter Mary, aged twenty-five [17] . These years must have been difficult ones for William. His sons James and Thomas moved to Wilsill to be nearer to the linen and flax mills in 1790. Then they both moved to Arncliffe in Craven, and it is doubtful if William ever saw his two boys again. He lived quietly with his wife Mary, until her death in 1795 [18] . His sons William and John may have stayed in the area.

      William Horner outlived his wife by at least another eighteen years, but died by 1812. It would appear that he had inherited lands at Whitehouses before 1812. This may have been through family connections, or it may have been through his own hard earned monies. Although William had begun life as a linen weaver, he might have diversified during the Napoleonic Wars and used some of the capital he had earned. William Hebden, a witness at William's second marriage, was buried in 1813 in Hartwith. William Hebden was a maltster and tanner of Braisty Woods [19] . This William Hebden was buried in 1813 in Hartwith, and in his will in 1812 he mentions a messuage at Whitehouses recently bought from John Wood and the assignees of William Horner.  A Thomas Pullen, Timber merchant of Pateley Bridge was one of the executors to whom William Hebden had also leased land at Fellbeck [20] . This would indicate that by 1812 William Horner had died.