Third Generation - George Horner         

George Horner was born in Wharfe in the township of Austwick, North Yorkshire and christened in the Parish of Clapham on 27 March 1814 [1] . He was the eldest son of Thomas and Esther Horner.  Thomas Horner was a weaver and probably worked in the cotton mill in Wharfe.

Early Life

 George was the eldest of seven children and had two brothers and five sisters. By the time George was four years old his family had moved from Wharfe to Austwick [2] .

This move from the village in which the cotton mill was based, Wharfe, may be connected` with changes in the cotton industry.  Due to changes in spinning, weavers became more important to mill owners. In order to retain the weavers large weaving sheds were built on the outskirts of villages to keep the Weavers together. The weaving shed built near Austwick was probably the site of Thomas Horner’s work in 1818.

     George’s youngest sister Harriet was born in Austwick and christened in Clapham in 1828 so the family was still living in Austwick at this date [3] . George would have been very close to his two brothers Mark and John. There was only a year between Mark and George and four years between George and John [4] . These three brothers would certainly have helped to contribute to the family income as soon as they were able, probably from the ages of five or six, and would have helped their parents in looking after their five younger sisters. As their father was a weaver, they may have helped to wind thread and thread shuttles.

Ann, the oldest sister, was only six years younger than George, and they were probably quite close, as George named his first child Ann after his sister [5] . George’s sister Elizabeth followed in 1821, Mary in 1823, Margaret in 1825 and finally Harriet in 1828 [6] .

The Domestic Cloth Industry

George and his family may have worked in the Worsted industry in Austwick, situated in the weaving shed on the outskirts of the village, or woven worsted cloth from wool and cotton at home [7] . He and his father may have spent many hours in cramped conditions for small rewards. As a handloom weaver, he would have earned 4d for a length of cloth.

George and his father may have worked for the Birbeck family who were based in Settle. The Birbecks farmed out wool to be combed by local families, and moved the wool to warehouses in Skipton by the end of the eighteenth century [8] . If so, George and his family may have worked at home as part of the Domestic system. This would have meant that he was also a farmer as piecework always went alongside farming. 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 [9] . Thomas Horner may have had a smallholding as usually domestic workers in the cloth industry also farmed. In the Settle area this would have been mainly pastoral farming as the area is mountainous. [10] . However, Thomas may have been part of the initial factory system. 

Austwick and Clapham Mills

   In the late eighteenth century, cotton Mills were built in the area surrounding Austwick. Four partners, three of whom originated from Nidderdale, built the earliest Cotton spinning Mill at Clapham, near Clapham station, in 1786 ^[11] . Armitstead and Company also bought Ingleton Mill, and ran cotton mills at Rathmell from 1793-1797. It is possible that the Horners moved from Pateley Bridge as a result of connections with these families. However, they stayed in Pateley Bridge until 1790.

However, both Ingleton and Clapham Mills were put up for sale in 1807 and did not spin cotton again until 1837 [12] . Clapham Mill span flax 1807-37 which could also be woven into linen by weavers, so work would still have been available for the Horners, but by 1792, Austwick Mill had been built for spinning cotton in the village of Wharfe in the township of Austwick [13] . As the Horners are recorded in Wharfe in 1813 it was probably the building of this mill, which brought the Horners to the Settle area. 

In 1803, it is perfectly possible that Thomas Horner was weaving cloth at home for the Mills at Clapham 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. After 1807, when Clapham Mill closed, he may have woven cloth for Austwick Mill, or he may have been weaving cloth for both factories up until 1807.

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 at the Worsted Shed situated on the outskirts of Austwick. This would have necessitated the move from Wharfe to Austwick by the Horner family between 1815 and 1818. However, 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.

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 [14] . Langcliffe Mill had added cotton weaving to its processes by 1833 and it is possible that George and his father worked there. By 1834 cotton production at Settle Mill Bridge and Runley Bridge had ended and this may have necessitated the move. However, George Horner and his family were already settled in Skipton by 1834, so other reasons may have prompted the move.

The Move to Skipton

       After spending at least the first fourteen years of his life in Wharfe and Austwick, George moved with his parents Thomas and Esther Horner and the rest of his family to Skipton between 1828 and 1834 [15] . 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 [16] . These worsted mills were burnt down in 1831 and rebuilt as cotton spinning mills.

In 1831 George was seventeen, his brothers Mark, sixteen and John, fourteen and of an age to earn a good wage of 5-6 shillings a week each in the new factories [17] . Their sisters Ann, eleven, Margaret, ten, Mary, eight, and Margaret six could also have worked as bobbin winders in the factories, and even three year old Harriet could have worked with her mother Esther in the cotton factory. The girls would have earned three shillings a week each and their mother Esther another nine to twelve shillings. With a family of eight children earning, twenty three shillings a week and his wife’s wage of twelve shillings, Thomas’s family would have brought in a wage of thirty-five shillings a week. As an Overlooker Thomas himself would have brought in another eighteen shillings making a princely sum of fifty-three shillings, or £2 and thirteen shillings.  

Thomas or George may have been employed as Overlookers in the Dewhurst’s new Cotton Mills. Thomas Horner was recorded as an Overlooker on the marriage of his son in 1838. Alternatively, they may have moved to work at Linton Mill, which in 1830 was owned by the Birbecks and was a Worsted Mill [18] . In 1829 the Birbecks were in Skipton with a worsted` factory. 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 [19] .

              Between 1828 and 1834 Thomas Horner and his family moved from Austwick to Skipton. The Horners may have traveled by the Lancaster to Settle carrier from Clapham to Settle on a Monday or Thursday, or the Austwick to Settle carrier on a Tuesday [20] . These carriers would have deposited the Horner family and all their belongings outside the Naked Man Inn in the centre of Settle, New Inn Yard, or the Royal Oak.

They may then have taken the Leeds carrier from the New Inn, which also departed on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. This would have arrived at Richard Shepherd’s warehouse in Skipton after a long and bumpy journey.  Alternatively they may have taken the Union coach from Clapham to Settle arriving at the Golden Lion 11.30 on a weekday. If so, this coach would have taken them to Skipton on its way to Leeds [21] . This journey would have taken them three hours and they would have arrived in Skipton at the Devonshire Hotel at 2.30pm.

       Whatever the reason for the move to Skipton, it was not a healthy one. All George’s siblings had survived childhood, but in 1836, George’s eldest sister Ann died in Skipton aged sixteen ^[22] . As George was close to his sister, this would have been a blow to the family. It would also have meant one less wage in the family. This is symptomatic of the move to towns in the early nineteenth century.

Married Life

          On 14 December 1837, George Horner, aged 23, married Elizabeth Bramley, aged 26, in Skipton Parish Church [23] . Their first daughter Anne was born a day later, on 15 December so it is highly likely that Elizabeth Bramley was heavily pregnant when they married [24] . This may have been a shotgun wedding as Elizabeth’s younger sister Isabella Bramley married Thomas Myers three days earlier in Skipton parish Church [25] .

George and Elizabeth may have met at the wedding of George Blades and Mary Ann Myers, sister to Thomas Myers, in 1835 [26] . The Blades family originated from Askrigg and later moved to Embsay and it is possible that the Horners first moved to Embsay from Austwick and moved to Skipton by 1836 [27] . As George Blades worked for Mr. Sidgewick at High Mills in Skipton, George and his family also probably worked in this factory when they moved to Skipton [28] . In 1825 High Mills had a new building with steam powered looms. It is possible that the Horners moved at this time.

       As Elizabeth is recorded as living at Millfields in 1837 and yet her sister Isabella is recorded at the High Street, it is highly likely that Elizabeth and George had been ‘living over the brush’ in Millfields in 1837. Her younger sister Martha Bramley married Thomas Chew that same month on 28 December [29] . December 1837 was a very busy month for weddings for the Bramley family. Elizabeth was the eldest daughter of James Bramley and Mary Spencer and was born in Skipton about 1811 [30] .

It is highly probable that George and Elizabeth met either through both working in Belle Vue Mills, or because they both lived in Millfields [31] . George was able to write well enough to sign his own name on his marriage certificate, but Elizabeth signed her name with a cross. The witnesses to the marriage were Jane Lambert and Henry Reader [32] . Both marked their names with crosses. Henry Reader’s cousin Jane Reader, daughter of Henry’s uncle George later married a Horner, probably our George Horner’s brother John [33] .

        George’s father, Thomas Horner, was also present at the wedding, but he died in October 1838 and was buried on 2 November 1838 in Skipton [34] . 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.

Bringing up a Family

       Initially George and his bride lived in the household of his mother Esther Horner in Commercial Street, Skipton. Their first daughter, Ann Horner, was born there in 1837, and their eldest son Thomas on 8 March 1840 [35] . Thomas and Ann were probably left in the care of Esther whilst George and Elizabeth worked as cotton weavers in Belle Vue Mill. In December 1841, George and Elizabeth’s son James joined the family, but before he had reached his second birthday George’s eldest child Ann died aged five [36] . 

George appears to have been promoted during these years from a weaver to an Overlooker in a cotton factory [37] . By the birth of their third son, John in 1845 George was merely described as a mill hand but he may still have been an Overlooker [38] . John Horner died in April before he was four years old in 1848, when George and Elizabeth’s fourth son William was barely a year old [39] .

       In 1841, Elizabeth and George would have worked alongside George’s brother John, aged 20, and his sisters Elizabeth, aged 20, Margaret, aged 15, and Harriet, aged 10, who were also Cotton weavers.

George’s sister Harriet Horner would have probably started work as a Doffer at the age of nine changing bobbins on the cotton spinners in the Mills and her wage would have been about one shilling and six pence to two shillings a week [40] . She would have worked nine hours a day, and about forty-eight hours a week, but would have been given three hours off a day and spent two hours a day at school [41] . Her sister Margaret would have worked twelve hours a day and sixty nine a week from the age of twelve until she was seventeen without any time for schooling after she had passed her thirteenth birthday. Both Margaret and Elizabeth would have earned about six shillings and six pence a week.

Their brothers, as men, would have earned substantially more for the same work. George and John would have worked the same a seventy-two hour week as their sister Elizabeth, from 6am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 6 am to 5 pm on a Saturday. They may even have worked night shifts, unlike the women. For this they would have been paid about seventeen shillings a week, more than twice the women’s wages.

Brother John Horner

       John Horner married Jane and moved to Cook’s Yard in Skipton by 1846 [42] . Their son Mark was born in 1846 perhaps named after John’s brother Mark [43] . It is possible that John later became a soldier and moved away from the area [44] .

George’s’ sisters Mary and Elizabeth had also left his home and set up their own homes. Elizabeth married James Robinson and Mary married Samuel Overend [45] .  By 1851, James and Elizabeth had set up their own home in Millfields and were joined by their children Isaac, Ann and John Robinson [46] . A Samuel Overing was living at Southside Mill Bridge in 1841, a male servant aged 20 in the household of John Myers, 80, farmer, and Ann Myers, 45 [47] .

       George’s brother Mark, who also lived in Commercial Street, was also a Cotton weaver and it is highly probable that he also have worked in Belle Vue Mills [48] . In 1841, Mark lived with his bride Mary (nee Oldfield) four doors down Commercial Street from George and his family. Mark lived with his nine month-old son Robert, the bride’s elderly father, James Oldfield aged sixty-five and younger brother James Oldfield aged fifteen [49] . Mark Horner also worked as a cotton weaver, probably in Birbeck’s [50] .

Mark and Mary had a son Thomas in 1842, but he died within two weeks [51] . Mark’s wife Mary was buried on 17 October 1842, less than a month after the death of her son Thomas, perhaps as a result of complications in childbirth [52] . Mark Horner was buried on 26 July 1846, leaving his six-year-old son Robert Horner who was soon taken in by George Horner and his family [53] .

The Bramley in-laws

                    George Horner’s in-laws, the Bramley’s also lived fairly close to Millfields in Chamberlain’s Yard in Sheep Street in 1841, and were probably frequent visitors [54] . It appears that the whole of Elizabeth Bramley’s family were working in Dewhurst’s Mills on Belle Vue Street in 1841.

Elizabeth’s father James Bramley, aged 55, was a ‘Carder in a Cotton Factory’, and his sons William, aged 25, was a cotton weaver, and James, aged 15, was a Doffer in a cotton factory [55] . James’s daughter Mary, aged 20, was also a spinner in the cotton factory [56] .  His wife Mary Bramley, nee Spencer, did not work, but remained at home caring for her grandson John Wray, aged five [57] . John Wray and his sister Marianne, or Ann Mary, lived with their grandfather in 1841. Ann Mary, aged 10, was a Rover in Belle Vue Mills and her wage would have helped to increase the household earnings.

       These Bramley’s may have been related to the John Bramley who ran the cotton spinning Good Intent Mill in Embsay in 1837, or even the Bramley and Company who were cotton spinners and manufacturers in Appletreewick in 1837 ^[58] . However, the connection is not at present proven.

   Elizabeth Bramley was the second eldest of eight children, and had three brothers and four sisters, only three of whom still lived with her parents at Chamberlain’s Yard in 1841. Her younger brother John and sister Ann had died in infancy [59] . Elizabeth’s older sister Sarah Bramley had already set up home with her husband Thomas Ray [60] .

The Plug Drawers Riot 1842

       Life for the Horners cannot have been peaceful in 1842. On 16 August 1842, Skipton was invaded by a mob of three thousand angry rioters from Colne in Lancashire [61] . Their aim was to put a stop to steam-power employment, which they blamed for the national depression of trade. Corn prices were also high due to great restrictions placed on the import of corn.

On the way to Skipton, they called on the handloom weavers in Barnoldswick and Earby and took away their shuttles to immobilise the looms. One group of the rioters visited Gargrave and stopped the mills there, and then the whole contingent converged on Skipton. The men were armed with heavy clubs and walked four men abreast; their staves carried horizontally, each man having hold of two sticks by the ends to form a barrier. The leaders wore white armbands made from strips of cloth or tape.

The rioters were called Plug Drawers because they planned to take the plugs from all the wagon boilers in the factories that they visited which were used to power the steam machinery. An iron plug was inserted in the bottom of the boiler and if it was knocked out, the water escaped onto the fire underneath and effectively stopped the work.

       When the rioters entered Skipton, magistrates met them. After failing to stop the rioters, the magistrates sent to Burnley for military help against the mob. In Skipton itself there was panic. Businesses were suspended and shops shut up. Whilst some of the mob went to Dewhursts Mill, others raided shops and houses taking food and drink. The mob drew the plugs on the boilers and raked out the fires at Dewhursts Mill and Sidegewicks Low Mill.

At High Mills, the rioters were driven back at first. Then after succeeding in drawing the plugs, the rioters demanded that the workmen be turned out and the Mill closed, until delegates at Manchester had determined the rate of wages. There were threats that if the Mill reopened without their consent they would return. They dispersed after gaining a sovereign from the owner of the Mill.

Meanwhile, the riot Act was read from the steps of the Town Hall on the High Street and in every bar of the Town, and the justices attempted to arrest the rioters. This was a little difficult as there were 3,000 rioters and only 5,000 inhabitants of Skipton. A timber merchant named John Settle offered the rioters beer and refreshments in his field called Anna Hills on the way to Connonley [62] . The magistrates followed the mob to Anna Hills and read the Riot Act again, but the mob refused to move. By then, the 61^st regiment of infantry had arrived and the soldiers charged the mob with fixed bayonets, dispersing the mob in all directions. This bloodless struggle was known as the ‘Anna Hills Fight’. The infantry remained in Skipton to protect the Mills and the workers returned to work, but were called to Colne to deal with the situation there. Whichever Mill George Horner worked in, he would have been affected by this action.

George's Later Life

       By 1851 Elizabeth Bramley and her husband George Horner had set up their own household at 104 Millfields Skipton. George’s mother Esther Horner had died in 1848, but his sisters Margaret, aged 26, and Harriet, aged 23, continued to live in his household and contributed their earnings as Power Loom Weavers to the family economy [63] . George also worked as a ‘Factory Worker’ in Belle Vue Mills, and his father-in-law James Bramley, aged 62, probably worked in the same factory as a ‘cotton Warper’.

James Bramley’s wife Mary had died in 1845 and in 1861 James, now widowed, had joined George Horner’s household in Millfields [64] . With four adults earning in the household, Elizabeth Horner, nee Bramley, was able to stay at home to care for her growing family. In April 1851, Elizabeth and George and their family were probably grieving for eighteen-month Mark Horner who had just been buried in March of that year [65] . George Horner was now a loom tackler and this may have meant that he was earning more money to feed his ever-growing family [66] . In 1851 her eldest son Thomas Horner was still at school at the age of twelve which implies that the family was comfortably well off. In addition to caring for her three sons still at home, Elizabeth also cared for Robert Horner, her husband’s nephew.

       Esther Horner, the youngest surviving daughter of George Horner, joined the family at Millfields in 1852, and the youngest son George in 1854 [67] . However, George died in 1856 aged 2 and James was buried in 1857 aged 15 [68] . Robert Horner, George’s nephew, the last of Mark Horners family, also died in1856 aged 16 [69] .

               In 1861, George and his family appear to have moved to 120 Westgate Skipton. George, aged 47 still worked as a Cotton Overlooker, probably still in Belle Vue Mills and his sisters Margaret and Harriet continued working as Cotton Power Loom weavers and contributing to the family income [70] . The impact of the earnings of both Harriet and Margaret on the lifestyle of the Horner family can be seen in the aspirations of George’s children. His son Thomas was a watchmaker, and William, aged thirteen, was still at school with his daughter Esther, aged nine.

George’s niece Margaret Robinson, aged three, had also joined the family [71] . Elizabeth Horner remained at home to care for her. Margaret remained with George’s family in 1871 when they moved to 96 Millfields [72] . By the age of thirteen Margaret Robinson had joined her cousin Esther Horner, aged 19, as a Winder in a Cotton Factory. George was a Loom Packer and probably worked in the same factory. In complete contrast William Horner, George’s eldest son, aged 24, was a Photographer [73] . George’s sisters were not recorded as part of his household in 1871. Harriet died in 1863, and Margaret may have married, or may have died between 1864 and 1871 [74] .

       The last record of George and his wife is in 1881 when they were living at 2, Commercial Street, Westgate, Skipton [75] . George, although now aged 68, was still working as a cotton Overlooker. This was probably in Belle Vue Mills. Elizabeth passed away in 1883 aged seventy-three [76] . George probably went to live with his children for the last few years of his life before he died in Skipton in September 1890 aged 76 [77] ..