The Horners of Thornton Watlass

The following is the work of Geoff Place in Australia. Both Geoff and I have a very strong feeling that this line of Horners is connected to the other Nidderdale lines, but cannot as yet make a connection.

Please feel free to contact Geoff here if you have any further leads!

Ralph Horner of East Marforth

The Horners in West Witton and Mariford appear to have gained from the dissolution of Jervaulx and Coverham Abbeys. Coverham Abbey had been granted free warren in the demesne lands of Coverham, Caldbergh and West Scrafton in 1271. They also held one and a half carucates of land, including a mill, in Coverham.

The Horners seem to have been resident in the manor of Wensleydale at Fingall, near Leyburn since 1572, when a Radulphus Horner was recorded as a tenant of Lady Margaret Lennox in East Marforth [1] . This is probably the same Ralph Horner who is recorded as a tenant of Rookwith and East and West Mariford in 1587 [2] . Incidentally, this is very near to East Witton, which lies just below Middleham, and East Marforth may have been in East Witton Parish or Wensley Parish. The manor of Wensleydale had been given to the Lennox family in 1544 after the dissolution of the monasteries [3] . The Horners seem to have been in East Witton since the late sixteenth century as in the courts Rolls of East Witton in 1572 a Thomas Horner accused a John Fidler of taking goods worth 20/- and he was fined [4] . As High Marriforth and East Witton are close to each other it is highly likely that these two Horners were related. These Horners may ultimately be connected with the Middleham and Coverham Horners, see Middleham Horners. The Horners of Thornton watlass may be connected with these lines.

John Horner of Rookwith

John Horner, of Rookwith in Thornton Watlass Parish, was the son of another John Horner and was born about 1695 [5] . It is at present unknown whether John had a brother William Horner.

John Horner, of Rookwith, married Isabel Carter in Thornton Watlass parish on 13 January 1724 [6] . John and Isabel had one son John Horner who was born in 1724 [7] .

John Horner of Thornton Watlass

John married Dorothy Smorthwaite on the 10th June 1754 [8] . They had a family of six children including five sons, Christopher, John, William, Thomas and Robert, and one daughter Elizabeth [9] . Their daughter Elizabeth did not make it to adulthood and died on 2 June 1764 aged only six [10] . John and Dorothy and their eldest two sons, Christopher, aged ten, and John, aged three, would have had a terrible summer burying their only daughter.

John and Dorothy's eldest son Christopher married Elizabeth Whitfield in 1783 [11] . Perhaps Dorothy made it to the wedding before she passed away in the same year [12] . It is not at present certain when John passed away, but too may have been at his eldest sons wedding. Christopher and Elizabeth set up home and soon started a family of four children, two daughters, Dorothy and Elizabeth, and two sons, Christopher and John [13] . Their daughter Elizabeth died in 1808 aged twenty-four and was buried in Thornton Watlass [14] . Christopher outlived his daughter by only another four years before passing away in December 1812, aged fifty eight years [15] .

William Horner 'Lime Kiln Man' of Watlass Wood

A William Horner, yeoman, of Watllass Wood, may be the son of John Horner, senior, of Rookwith above. This William was born about 1695. He married Mary and they had a family of six children.

In 1722, William and Mary appear to have been living in the parish of Well, where their eldest son William was christened [16] . By 1725, they had moved to Watlass Wood where their second son Christopher was christened [17] . Two years later in 1727 William and Mary appear to have moved again to 'ye Woodhouse' where their next three children, Mary, Martha and John were born [18] . Another move to 'ye Crossways' in 1734 saw the birth of their youngest son Robert [19] .

William was the was the Lime Kiln man of Watlass. In the the middle of the 18th century, lime was in widespread use for reclaiming waste and for improving existing land, as well as for mortar and limewash [20] . In addition it was used for a host of small-scale industrial purposes, such as tanning, textiles, soap and paper making, that took place in villages across the area. there was a large increase in the demand for lime as swathes of moor and fell were carved up into new fields in the Enclosure Movement of this period.

All such kilns operated in much the same way. Kindling was laid on a grill at the base of the cylindrical, or oval, vertical bowl with alternate layers of fuel and stone being laid on top. Most kilns had a small quarry immediately behind and a ramp so that stone and fuel could easily be tipped into the bowl. Once a kiln had been filled to capacity, the rate of burn was regulated to allow actual burning in the central section of the bowl; hot air from here dried out and heated up fresh stone in the upper third; while that in the lower third slowly cooled down ready to be drawn through the draw hole - or eye - at the base. It was then packed in sacks or barrels or loaded on carts to be spread across nearby fields or dispatched to areas lacking limestone. Some kilns were constantly being topped up and drawn in a continuous process. Others were filled up, fired and drawn in one discrete operation, such kilns were worked on an intermittent basis. This must have been dirty work for William.

William Horner appears to have been a trustworthy man as he was appointed the Church Warden in 1733 [21] . He is also recorded on the manorial court roll in 1735 [22] . He died in Thornton Watlass in 1764 [23] .

William Horner 'Lime Kiln Man' of Firby and Watlass

William's eldest son William followed his father as the Lime Kiln Man od Watlass. No doubt he was present at his sister Martha's marriage to John Williamson in 1748 [24] .

William Horner married Mary and set up home in Watlass. [25] . They had eleven children in Watlass between 1752 and 1777 including four surviving sons, William, Thomas, Christopher, and Robert [26] . Their second son Thomas died in 1755 before he reached his first birthday, and their fifth son, John, died when he was five years old in 1770 [27] . William and Mary's five daughters born in Watlass all seem to have survived childhood; Mary, Jane , Ann, Elizabeth and Eleanor [28] .

William Horner was admitted to the Court in 1747 and made the church warden in 1762 [29] . In 1782 he probably attended the wedding of his eldest daughter Mary to John egglestone in Thornton Watlass [30] .

William died five years later in 1787 in Bedale parish, “William Horner of Firby in Parish of Bedale but late of Watlass" [31] . His youngest daughter Eleanor was buried in Bedale aged only twenty-four [32] .

William's family appear to have settled in Bedale as his youngest son Robert married and had a family there in the late eighteenth century. Robert married Mary Baldridge in 1773 in Bedale [33] . They had three daughters, of whom only two survived to adulthood, Jane and Elizabeth [34] .