The Early Burnsall Horners

Although within the Craven area, this line of Horners appears to die out, another line with an equally impressive lineage survived in Burnsall. Burnsall was the property of the Nortons of Rhylstone until 1569 and the Rising of the Northern earls. Then the land was forfeited to the crown and came into the hands of the Cliffords of Skipton in 1611 [1] . It is possible that the Burnsall line, and those in Conistone/Clapham are ultimately related, but as of yet I have not found a connection. Once again, these Burnsall Horners appear to die out in Burnsall Parish in the 1700s. They appear to be based in Appletreewick and may be related to a later branch of Horners residing there. It is possible that they were engaged in the cloth trade. There is evidence of a linen mill in Burnsall in 1579 [2] . In 1593 there is also evidence of a fulling mill at Burnsall where the cloth was thickened and cleansed [3] .

William Horner the Younger of Burnsall

The line of William Horner ‘the younger’ appears to follow the classic pattern of eldest sons remaining in the parish and younger sons moving in search of work and land, or sometimes on their marriage. He may have been the son of a Robert Horner of Burnsall who was buried in Rhylstone in 1570 [4] . A Robert Horner of ‘Snoyttere gillinge’ in the parish of Burnsall death was registered on 7 May 1570. His will was proved on 13 June 1570.

William 'the younger' of Burnsall had four children, two sons and two daughters [5] . His wife was buried in 1607. The younger son, Thomas,appears to have left the area, and only the line of the eldest son, Anthonie Horner continues in Burnsall into the seventeenth century [6] .

Anthonie Horner of Burnsall

       Anthonie Horner proceeded to marry twice and have seven children, of whom only three survived to adulthood, William, Robert and Margaret [7] . Of the two youngest surviving children, Margaret married Robert Buoke, and the youngest son Robert disappears from the Burnsall parish area [8] . Anthony Horner ‘ de parochial Skipton’ was recorded as a yeoman in 1598 [9] . He was accused in the Quarter Sessions of not attending the Parish Church in Skipton, nor the chapel at Burnsall for 16 years. Despite a reminder, he refrained from attending church for the next 6 months. It is not certain what punishment was meted out to Anthony. It is doubtful that Anthony was a Catholic as he is referred to as ‘anglice’, or Anglican. In 1610, Anthony Horner ‘miller of Appletreewick was convicted of a felony at the Clifford’s manor court and his goods were forfeit to his lord. He was probably hung at Richmond [10] .

William Horner of Burnsall

         The eldest surviving son William Horner married and produced three sons, Thomas, John and Anthony. William Horner died in 1635 when his youngest son Thomas was only five years old, and it is not yet clear how these sons were raised [11] . Of these three sons, only John and Anthony appear to remain in Burnsall. The youngest son, Thomas, does not reappear in the Parish Registers after his christening probably indicating that he moved to search for work elsewhere. Anthony Horner, the eldest son, marries a Luce who was buried in Burnsall in 1674, but no children are recorded in the parish [12] . Only the line of the middle son, John Horner continues in Burnsall. It is possible that he may have worked in the sawmill and smithy built by Henry Young in 1672 in Burnsall [13] .

        It is interesting that in the Hearth Tax returns of 1672 no Horner is recorded for Burnsall. However, in Appletreewick a John Horner and an Anthony Horner paid tax for one hearth each [14] . This Anthony Horner, of Appletreewicke, parish Burnsall, husbandman, will dated 7 June 1687, proved June 1687. York Registry. A John Horner of Hebden also is recorded as having one hearth ‘per mill’. This may indicate that John Horner was also a Miller and followed in his father’s footsteps [15] . This indicates that the Horners in Burnsall at this time owned property worth more than twenty shillings a year.

John Horner of Appletreewick and Langbar

    John married Helen Shelden in 1651, and appears to have been living in Appletreewick [16] . He may have gained lands in Ilkley through this marriage. John was probably a miller working the Corn Mill in Hebden. He may also have been a Blacksmith. A John Horner, Blacksmith, of Skyreholme, was recorded with John Hey in 1672 as being guilty of an assault on a John Orton [17] . John Horner was probably buried in Ilkley in 1696 of Lanber [18] . Of Johns eight children, five sons and one daughter survived to adulthood [19] .

John’s eldest son William does not appear to remain within the parish, although from IGI records he appears to have a son Robert christened on 14 February 1683 in Burnsall [20] . Of this line, little else is at present known. John’s second eldest son Thomas appears to have moved to Langbar near Addingham and Ilkley. John’s third eldest son, John Horner remains in Burnsall and presumably inherits any land that there may have been to inherit on the death of his father. The other two surviving sons, Christopher and Leonard appear to have followed the pattern of youngest sons, moving to search for employment elsewhere. As yet, these lines have not been found continuing in the Craven area. Alternatively, these Horners may have been Quakers. There was a Quaker meeting House in Burnsall registered from 1669 which may have been Scale House near Rhylstone [21] .

John Horner of Appletreewick

      John Horner, of Appletreewick, married Isabel Lambert and had three sons in Burnsall Parish [22] . The eldest Henry died young, but little trace has been found of the second son Anthony. The only surviving son who remains in Appletreewick, John Horner does not appear to marry, or produce children and the line therefore seems to die out when he dies in 1746 [23] .

John Horner of Langbar

       However, the Burnsall Horner line continues in Addingham into the eighteenth century. Horners had been living in the area since the fifteenth century. In 1473, a Thomas Estby, alias Horner is recorded as holding one cottage, three acres and a meadow for the rent of three shillings a year at Storithes near Bolton Abbey [24] . A James Horner of Beamsley entered into recognizances with 2 sureties to be of good bearing to my lord Clifford’s deer in 1546/7 [25] . It is difficult at present to establish the connection between these early Horners and those of Burnsall Parish, but the John Horner of Lanber or Langbar near Ilkley, recorded in the Addingham Parish registers in 1696, is probably the same man as the Burnsall John Horner who married Helen Shelden [26] . Langbar abuts onto the Bolton Abbey and Burnsall parishes, and it is highly probable that the Horner patrimony, gained by marriage or land holdings straddled the parish divide. However in 1674 a Jane Horner wife of John Horner of Langbar was given relief at Skipton sessions with 18 weekly grants [27] . He may be the same man as the John Horner of ‘Houber Hill’, which is a farmstead on Beamsley Beacon north of Ilkley [28] . In 1641 a William Horner of Beamsley was accused of stealing sheep and oats and was described as a labourer [29] .

Thomas Horner, John of Langbar's son, was christened in Ilkley in 1654 and married Alice Holdsworth in Addingham in 1683 [30] . They appear to have settled in Addingham as all of their children were christened there and the family farmed the land until the eighteenth century. This land was situated at Gillbottom in the parish of Addingham. Thomas and Alice only appear to have produced one surviving son Thomas out of their six children [31] . Of the daughters’, Agnes married a Thomas Hardwick in 1715 and continued to live in Addingham [32] . Of the two Thomas’s, I think it highly probable that only the youngest son survived to adulthood. This Thomas was a yeoman farmer who farmed at Gillbottom. He is recorded as an elector in the 1741 Poll Book as voting for George Fox [33] . He married Margaret Wilson of Arncliffe in Arncliffe parish that may have been an attempt to gain lands in Arncliffe, or may indicate family connections with the Horners of Littondale. [34] Their only son Thomas also married his wife Agnes Ayrton in 1755 in Arncliffe that indicates strong family connections with the Littondale area [35] . Thomas Horner only survived for three years after their marriage and died in 1758, being described as a Cooper of Gillbottom [36] . His wife Agnes long survived him and was buried in 1799 aged seventy in Addingham [37] . Thomas and Agnes appear to have had only one child, a daughter Ann. She later married Henry Harrison a yeoman farmer and their grandson was christened in Addingham in 1808 [38] .