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The Foster Horners In 1835, a Foster Horner and John Fell established the Craven Lead Works in Keighley Road in Skipton [1] . Here they manufactured sheet lead, water pipes, and gas tubing from pig lead taken from mines at Grassington [2] .
Foster Horner had moved to Skipton before 1815 from Redmire in
North Yorkshire and had married Mary Fell, his partner’s sister
in 1816
[3]
. Foster Horner and Mary Fell had a family of
five sons and three daughters
in Skipton
[4]
. Foster Horner had married Mary Fell. The Fell family had long associations with lead mining in the Craven district. Foster Horner’s father-in-law Robert Fell of Robert Fell and Company was a principal partner in Coalgrovehead and Pit Moss lead mines at Grassington from 1818 until 1831 [6] . This Company worked Pit Moss mine until 1836, and Coalgrovehead mine until 1841, when the leases were surrendered. The average output of the mines fell from 48 tonnes a year in 1817 to only 4.37 tonnes in 1818. This may have been one of the reasons why Fell and Horner relinquished the leases. By 1831, Robert Fell
and Company was headed by Foster Horner, the senior partner
in the firm. Foster Horner was listed in the 1835 and 1838 Skipton Poll Books and so had a yearly
income of at least 40 shillings although it may have been substantially
more
[7]
. By 1846, Foster Horner and Robert Fell and Leonard Horner headed
the company
[8]
. Foster Horner appears to have maintained his
currier business and continued this trade into the mid nineteenth
century
[9]
. By 1861, Forster Horner had become a land
agent and merchant
[10]
. Foster Horner’s son Leonard retired to
Linton near Grassington by 1881 with his wife Margaret
[11]
. By 1839, Foster Horner had been joined in Skipton by another
branch of Horners from Redmire, the line of Christopher Horner.
Christopher worked in Foster’s Lead Mill and his family later
traded as painters and decorators
[12]
. Christopher’s son Henry Horner became
the manager in Foster Horner’s Lead Mill
[13]
. As well as being closely associated with lead mining, the Fells
also had associations with the Cotton industry in the Aire valley.
In 1787 a Robert Fell, innkeeper of the Thanet's Arms in Skipton
was the trustee of a John Hartley of Airton who had purchased
Airton watermill
[14]
. The mill was
extended from 1787 to 1797 and used for spinning Cotton Twist.
Isaac and John Dewhurst, of Skipton and Embsay, later acquired
Airton Mill in 1825 in partnership with Christopher Bracewell
of Thornton in Craven
[15]
. This Robert Fell was the man who later joined
in partnership with Foster Horner
[16]
. A John Fell,
who may be related, was a cardmaster in the 1803 muster rolls
for Skipton
[17]
. Although the Fells had associations with the
Cotton industry, Foster Horner seems to have been mainly associated
with the lead industry. A Nicholas John Horner
of Glen View, Lostock Park, Bolton claimed to have a distant
relationship with ‘a Horner of the firm Horner and
Fell Craven lead Works, Skipton’ in 1907
[18]
. He was the proprietor of the firm N.J.Horner
and Co. tea and Coffee merchants in Bolton
[19]
. Nicholas Horner and his brothers Thomas Ezra,
JP, and Leonard all lived in Bolton in 1901
[20]
. Their father John Horner had left Lubeck
farm near Worton near Askrigg in 1854 to move to Lancashire
[21]
. This may be the John Horner recorded as a
tailor in Bainbridge township in 1823
[22]
. Apparently, the
farm at Lubeck had been occupied by at least three generations
of Horners before John and his sons left Wensleydale
[23]
. John Horner’s father Nicholas Horner
had lived at Lubeck farm and Nicholas’s father John Horner
had occupied the farm since at least 1777
[24]
. The farm had descended from Nicholas Horner
to his eldest son William Horner, and William’s son John Horner
Mudd held the farm in 1907
[25]
. John Horner Mudd resided in Thornton Rust
in 1851 and 1861
[26]
. There is also a Robert Horner
in Bainbridge in 1861
[27]
.
[1]
Dawson, History, p. 284. The 11th
earl of Thanet financed the building of the Craven Lead Works
in Skipton for John Fell and Forster Horner.YAS DD121/118/3.
. See The Sidgewisks of Skipton, in YAJ, vol. 73, 2001.
[2]
The lands in Skipton
on which the Craven Lead Works were built were leased to John
Fell and Foster Horner, and others, in 1824 by a William Grane,
John Stirk and John Harrison. See Rowley Archive, deeds dated ½ December 1815,
17 December 1824 and 23 November 1825. This John Harrison may
be related to Sarah Ann Harrison.
[3]
Mary Fell was christened on 2 October 1791 in
Skipton, the daughter of Robert and Anne Fell. Mary Fell and
Foster Horner were married on 3 October 1816 in Skipton.
John Fell was the son of Robert and Ann Fell and was
christened on 26 May 1799 in Skipton.
IGI [4] Elizabeth Horner born 30 April 1821, christened 19 August 1821, Christopher Horner born 2 September 1817, christened 3 October 1817, John Horner born 5 October 1826, christened 25 December 1826, buried 13 April 1840, Millbridge, Ann Fell Horner born 2 September 1828, buried 25 January 1851 aged 22, Forster Horner born 11 October 1830, christened 15 January 1831 and buried 29 October 1841 aged 11, Mary born 9 December 1832, christened 27 March 1833, Robert Fell born 15 April 1819, christened 14 July 1819 and buried 14 May 1852 aged 33, Leonard Horner born 3 December 1823 christened 13 January 1824. Leonard Horner married Margaret and had Foster Horner born 17 April 1851, christened 1 June 1851, (died Dec 1893 Skipton, see Free BMD), Robert Dale born 31 October 1854, christened 25 December, 1854, Mary born 26 June 1852, christened 1 August 1852, and Isabella Ann born 13 August 1856, christened 14 September 1856. Skipton Census returns 1841-1901. In 1841 Forster Horner is recorded at Millbridge aged 50, a carrier and Lead merchant with his wife Mary (45), and children Christopher (20), John (10), Ann (10), Forster (10) and Mary (8). 1841 Skipton Census.
[5]
See Baines 1823 Directory.
[6]
The Grassington Mines, MC Gill, A Monograph of
the Northern Mine Research Company, 1993.Robert Fell had been
a Lead Merchant in Skipton in 1828. Dewhurst History of Skipton
p. 284.
[7]
Under the 1832 Reform Act freeholders with an
annual income of 40 shillings were allowed to vote for the first
time. Foster Horner may have been a copyholder with an annual
income of ten pounds a year or a leaseholder with at least fifty
pounds a year income. If Skipton were a borough, he could have
voted as a ten-pound householder. So, the fact that he could
vote tells us that he was of the artisan middling classes. See
1832 Reform Act. See
also Poll Books on 1835 and 1838. 1838 Poll Book in Keighley
Library, 1835 in Leeds University Library. [8] See Dewhurst p. 284. In 1851 his son Leonard Horner, (27) is recorded as an Ironmonger in Currer Street. He lives with his wife Margaret (20, born Settle), a servant Ann Clough and an apprentice Dolby Hobson). 1851 Skipton Census. By 1871 Leonard Horner is at 243, Newmarket Street and is a lead manufacturer employing 15 people. His wife Margaret (40), and their children Foster (19), clerk, Robert (16), Mary (17), Isabella (14), live with them and a servant Mary Bailey (21). 1871 Skipton Census. He married his wife Margaret Proctor or Dale in March 1850 in Settle. Free BMD. [9] Forster Horner is recorded at Millbridge in Skipton in 1851 as a manufacturer of sheet and pipe lead employing five men. He was also a currier master employing two men. He is aged 62, and his wife Mary (59). Their children Christopher (33, currier), and Mary (18) live with them. 1851 Skipton Census. A currier dressed and coloured leather after tanning. [10] In 1861 Foster Horner is living at Craven terrace aged 72, a widower and a land merchant employing 10 men. His son Christian (43) is a land merchant and bookkeeper, and they have a servant Anne mead living with them. In 1871 Forster Horner aged 82 is a merchant and lived at Carlton Street with his son Christopher (58, bookkeeper), and their housekeeper Anne ward. 1871 Skipton Census. . 1861 Census [11] Leonard Horner was aged 57 and a Lead merchant retired. His wife Margaret was born in Giggleswick (50). They had a visitor Evilene Marks (22) born in Tottenham in Middlesex and a servant Emma Wellock and a cook Eliza Harker. 1881 Census.
[12]
From Census returns 1841-1891. In 1841 Christopher
Horner (40, Labourer) lived at Commercial Street
in Skipton with his wife Ruth (40), and children Henry (15),
Elizabeth (14), Christopher (13), Ruth (9), John (8), James
(5), Margaret (4), Calvert (2) and Ellen (6). In 1851 Christopher
Horner was a widower and lived in Commercial Street. He was
a labourer in a Lead mill. His daughter Christiana was the housekeeper
and his sons Christopher (22), Ruth (19), John (17), James (15)
and Margaret (13) were cotton weavers. Calvert Horner, born
Embsay aged 11, and William (6) were scholars. 1841 and 1851
Skipton census. 1851 and 1861 Skipton Census. Christiana a single
woman gave birth to a William Henry Horner on 31 December 1847,
and he was christened on 23 April 1848. He was buried on 6 November
1852 Skipton. Holy Trinity Parish Registers. In 1861 Christopher’s daughter Elizabeth had married Thomas Wilkinson
, a cotton overlooker and lived at Commercial Street, Millfields.
Their children John (3) and James (6 months) lived with them,
as did Elizabeth’s siblings; John Horner (27), Railway engine
driver, James (25), Stonemason, Margaret (23),Cotton weaver), Calvert Horner
(21, Painter and Plumber), William (16) Cotton weaver. 1861
Skipton Census. Christopher’s wife Ruth Horner was buried on
10 August 1844 aged 43 of Millfields in Skipton.
Their son Christopher Horner may have been buried on
23 March 1855 aged 18 in Skipton. Ann Isabella, daughter of Christopher
and Ruth Horner was born on 8 September 1842, christened on
15 September 1842 and buried on 26 September aged 18 days. Their
daughter Ellen was buried on 29 October 1843 of Millfields,
in Skipton. Holy Trinity Parish Registers. [13] In 1871 Henry was at 18 Pembroke Street and was a manager in the lead Mill. He lived with his wife Hannah (45), and children Robert (22), Ruth (21), Elizabeth (19), Christopher (13) and Henry (4). 1871 Census. In 1851 Christopher’s son Henry Horner had married Hannah and set up in Millfields with his wife and their children Robert (2) and Ruth (1). Christopher was an engine tenter. In 1861 Henry and his family had moved to west gate and he is a Lead Roller, probably in Foster Horner’s factory. His wife Hannah (35) and their children Robert (13), Ruth (11 ) work in the cotton Mills. Their son Christopher 3 is a scholar. Henry’s brother in law, Charles Handy (28) also lodges with them as a shoemaker. By 1881 Henry had died and his wife and family had moved to 2,Union Terrace. Their son Robert was a lead roller (33), and Ruth (31) and Henry (13) worked in the cotton mills. See Skipton census.
[14]
Along with Margaret
Williams, his mother in law, and John Brown of Calton, gentleman. A History of Airton Mill, by William Sharp1990
Published by the Craven Herald and Pioneer, Skipton, pp6-8. Robert Fell was at the Thanet Arms in 1828. See Dewhurst p. 284.
[15]
A History of Airton Mill, by William Sharp1990,
pp.21-2.
[16]
Robert Fell was born in Grassington and he married
Ann Inman on 6 December 1790 in Burnsall. IGI The Fells of the
Skipton and Airton may have been related to the Fell family
of Morton Banks in Bingley who owned land in Kilnsey
[17]
He was aged between 29 and 55 and was married.
See Craven Muster Rolls. A John fell was christened on29 October
1749 in Kildwick the son of Richard and Judith Fell. A John
fell was also christened on 26 December 1762 in Grassington
in Linton Parish son of Isaac fell. Either John fell could be
the one in Skipton in 1803. A John Fell and Alice Watson marry
in Skipton on 28 October 1801. If this is the John Fell in the
Muster Rolls then his christening is probably in 1762. Robert
Fell may have been christened in Grassington on 20 January 1757
son of Richard Fell and Mary Demaine or christened on 22 July
1760 son of Isaac fell. IGI. I think it is highly probable that
the two are brothers and sons of Isaac fell of Grassington.
[18] WYAS DB50.5. [19] Based at 6, Old Hall Street, South Bolton. See WYAS DB50.C5. In 1881 Census he was a tea and coffee merchant employing 1 woman and 1 boy at 47 Arkwright Street Bolton. He was aged 33 and born in Aysgarth. 1881 Census. Nicholas John Horner was born 1847 in Cubeck, Aysgarth, Yorkshire, England. He died 1919 in Leyburn, Wensley Parish, Yorkshire, England. Nicholas married Mary Jane Entwistle on 16 Nov 1871 in Bolton, Bolton Parish, Lancashire,. They had the following children: Sarah Alice Horner, born 1872 Bolton Parish. Eleazar Horner was born 1873 and died 1956. James William Horner was born 1875 and died 1945. Percy Thomas Horner was born 2 Sep 1876 and died 8 Feb 1940. Frederick Horner was born 1878 in Bolton. Edith Horner was born 1881 in Bolton. Mary Jane Horner was born 1885. http://www.tomkinshome.com/familyweb/aqwg59.htm#1539
[20]
Thomas Ezra Horner lived at Easby Banks in 1907. WYAS DB 50.5. Leonard
lived in Little Bolton in 1881 aged 31 and was a tea merchant
employing 4 men, 1 woman and a boy. See 1881 Census. Thomas
Ezra Horner was christened on 19 July 1846 in Askrigg the son
of John and Tamar Horner. Their sister Mary Ann Horner was christened
19 July 1846 [21] John Horner was born in Lubeck near Worton in 1814. DB50.5 Lubeck Farm is probably Cubeck south of Worton on the modern ordnance survey. John Horner had a sister Jane christened 28 October 1821 and two brothers, Wilfred christened 6 April 1817 and William christened 18 October 1818. This William married a Margaret and their son Nicholas was christened on 20 September 1844 in Askrigg. His wife Margaret had their twins James and Sarah christened on 23 July 1843. IGI C009202. William Horner of Cubeck was buried on 14 March 1878, aged 60. Margaret Horner his wife died on 8 March 1892 aged 77. Their son Nicholas died on 28 June 1915 aged 71. Aysgarth gravestones. This Nicholas appeared in the 1881 census at Prospect Place, Longworth, Longworth, Little Bolton, Lancashire with his mother Margaret aged 62. He is aged 36 and an annuitant. 1881 Census. This Nicholas had returned to Worton in Bainbridge Township, Aysgarth parish by 1890. Horner Mr. Nicholas, Miscellany of Trades 1890, Bulmer. A Christopher Horner of Leyburn s is recorded in Bulmers directory for HAWES in 1890 as a solicitor who may be related to this branch. [22] There is also a Horner Henry recorded in the township of BAINBRIDGE as a tailor in 1823. This Henry Horner is also recorded as a tailor in Bainbridge in 1834. It is highly likely that they are brothers. Baines's Directory of 1823. Pigot's Directory of 1834. This Henry Horner is recorded in Bainbridge in 1841aged 50 with Margaret Horner, 25 and James Horner aged 6. In 1851 he is in Bainbridge aged 63 born Bainbridge, with his grandson James, aged 16 who is also a tailor, born in Bainbridge. In 1861 in Bainbridge Henry Horner is 73 Tailor living with his grandson James Horner 27 Tailor. In 1871 James is tailor living in Bainbridge aged 36 and unmarried. [23] John Horner married Tamar Chapman. She was born 1814 in Worton, Aysgarth, Yorkshire, England. She married John Horner on 1 Jan 1842 in Aysgarth Parish, Yorkshire, England. http://www.tomkinshome.com/familyweb/aqwg59.htm#1539. In 1851 John and Tamara are living in Bainbridge at Worton Scarr Top Village, John Horner is 37 a Farmer and tallow chandler born in Cubeck. His wife Tamer is 37 born Worton and they live with their children Margaret A, 8, Thomas E, 7, Nicholas T., 4 and Leonard, 1. All the children were born in Worton. 1851 Census. [24] DB50.5. This may have been the year of Nicholas Horner’s birth. Nicholas Horner occupies the farm at Cubeck in 1841 and 1851. In 1841Nicholas is a farmer aged 60 and lives with his wife Margaret 60 and John Horner, 25, William Horner, 20, Jane Horner, 15, and a servant Margaret Raw aged 15. In 1851 Nicholas Horner is aged 73, a Farmer and born in Redmire. He lives with his wife Margaret, 69, born High Abbotside, and Jane, 26, born Cubeck, James Atkinson, a servant, aged 22 born High Abbotside. In 1851 his son William is living at Aysgarth aged 31 a Farmer of 28 acres born Cubeck, and his wife Margaret, 33, born Thornton Rust, son Robert Mudd, 13, born Thornton Rust and Nicholas aged 5 born Worton. In 1861 a William Horner, 42, is the farmer at Cubeck of 250 acres, with his wife Margaret Horner, 42, born Thornton Rust, son Nicholas Horner, 16, born Worton, and a servant Anthony Wilkinson, 16, born Nappa Scarr. In 1871 William Horner is 52, a Farmer of 253 acres, born Bainbridge, with his wife Margaret, 52, born Thornton Rust, and their son Nicholas, 25, born Bainbridge. [25] This John Horner Mudd was the son of William Horner, son of Nicholas Horner and first cousin to NJ Horner of Bolton. A Nicholas Horner, first cousin to NJ Horner of Bolton also lived at Worton in 1907. DB50.5. Mudd John Horner, is a farmer at Cubeck in Bainbridge Township, Aysgarth Parish in 1890. (Bulmer). This may be the farmhouse Raydale House, formerly the property of the Robinsons, who, at one time, were at feud with the Metcalfes. The fracas culminated in the siege of Raydale House by Sir Thomas Metcalfe, in 1617, when two persons were killed and several wounded. The house is now the property of F. W. Foster, Esq., and is occupied by Mr. John Horner, farmer. Geographical and Historical information from the year 1890. [26] MUDD Robert Mudd, is living in Thornton Rust in 1851, aged74, landowner, born Thornton Rust, lived with his wife Catherine, aged68, born Aysgarth, and their children. Elizabeth,42, and John Horner,aged25,..In 1861MUDD Robert Mudd is still living in Thornton Rust, aged 84, a farmer of 28 acres his wife Catherine, aged78, born Thornton Rust, and their son John Horner Mudd, aged35, a manager of farm. Thornton Rust Census 1851 and 1861. [27] 1861 Census Bainbridge Robert Horner Head M 70 ag lab Yorks Bainbridge, Mary Horner Wife M 75 Yorks Chapel le dale |
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