I’ve been joining the dots again on The Peerage, this time with the 56 entries on the Hornby Index. I started with the Reverend William Hornby. According to ‘A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the landed gentry of Great Britain ….’ by Bernard Burke I’ve found the following which connects the Reverand to another Hornby on on The Peerage and my ancestor Richard Birley

I also managed to show via the Wiki here the Reverend Geoffrey Hornby is the father of Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby. I haven’t managed to trace them back to my ancestors but have linked them back to the Dave Birley’s site and beyond.

Basically, Dave Birley has the Rev. Geoffrey HORNBY D.L. above listed in his site, and if you follow the ancestry you end up at Susannah SHERDLEY. Found a reference to a Geoffrey Hornby of Poulton le Fylde (b ca 1684, d 27 Mar 1732), marring a Susannah Sherdley in 1719 in Bispham. It was on a site listing the ancestors of Edward Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby.

I then found the marriage mentioned as part of an entry on History of the Fylde of Lancashire (1876) by John Porter as follows:

HORNBY OF POULTON
The Hornbys, of Poulton, were descended from Hugh Hornby, of Singleton, who died about 1638,. after having so far impoverished himself during the civil wars . as to be obliged to dispose of his estate at Bankfield, inherited from his sister, and purchased from him by the Harrisons. Geoffrey Hornby, the son of this gentleman, practised very successfully as a solicitor in Preston, and probably was the first to acquire property in Poulton. Edmund Hornby, his eldest son, of Poulton, where he also practised as a solicitor, and Scale Hall, married Dorothy, the daughter of Geoffrey Rishton, of Antley, in Lancashire, Member of Parliament for Preston, and had issue Geoffrey, George, and Anne. George, the second son, went into holy orders, became rector of Whittingham, and subsequently died without surviving offspring. Anne Hornby married Edmund Cole, of Beaumont Cote, near Lancaster ; and Geoffrey Hornby, who inherited the Poulton property, as well as Scale Hall, espoused Susannah, the daughter and heiress of Edward Sherdley, of Kirkham, gentleman, by whom he had issue Edmund and Geoffrey, the latter dying unmarried in 1801. Geoffrey Hornby, who died in 1732, was buried in Poulton church, being succeeded by his son Edmund, who came into the possessions at Poulton and Scale. Edmund Hornby, born in 1728, married Margaret, the daughter of John Winckley, of Brockholes, and had issue one son, Geoffrey, and three daughters. At his decease, in 1766, the estates descended to his only son and heir, Geoffrey, born at Layton Hall in 1750, who, after being High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1774, and for some time colonel of a Lancashire regiment of militia, entered the church and became rector of Winwick. The Rev. Geoffrey Hornby espoused the Hon. Lucy Smith Stanley, daughter of Lord Strange, and sister of the twelfth earl of Derby, and had issue ; but the departure of this representative of the family from the homes of his fathers severed the close connection between the town of Poulton and the name of Hornby, after an existence of about a century.

Still couldn’t link them to my ancestors directly, but did also show that Edmund John Phipps-Hornby VC, CB, CMG (31 December 1857 – 13 December 1947) the son of the Admiral of the Fleet, Geoffrey Thomas Phipps Hornby GCB, and that in turn he was the son of Sir Geoffrey Thomas Phipps Hornby GCB (February 10, 1825 – March 3, 1895), a British Admiral of the Fleet … and that he was son of Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby (see Wki entry here). He was also father of … John James Hornby C.V.O. (18 December 1826 – 2 November 1909) was an English rower, and headmaster of Eton College from 1868 to 1884 (way before my Dad’s time there).

I then showed via Titchfield Families – Hornby Family how a number of other Hornbys listed on The Peerage were descended from William HORNBY (Governor of Bombay between 1771 and 1784), including Anne HORNBY, Thomas Wynn HORNBY, Julia Jane HORNBY, John HORNBY and Jane HORNBY. Think I even found another generation back but couldn’t link them to my ancestors.

The Peerage listed 1st Baronet (William Henry). This seemed to be same person they listed Sir Henry Hornby who married Letitia Grace Browne. Dave Birley’s site also has him listed here and shows how he married Margaret Susannah BIRLEY daughter of Edward BIRLEY and Elizabeth SWAINSON. Edward was son of John BIRLEY and Elizabeth SHEPHERD, and brother to my ancestor Richard Birley who married Alice Hornby. Her brother John Hornby was a partner of Richard Birley and the father of the Sir William Henry HORNBY mentioned on The Peerage.

I think it’s Sir Henry Russell HORNBY J.P. that The Peerage has listed as 2nd Baronet (Henry Russell) he the son of Sir William Henry HORNBY D.L., J.P. and Letitia Grace CLAYTON-BROWNE mentioned above.

William Henry Hornby Junior gets a mention on both the Cotton Town site, as does his father William Henry Hornby Senior. There’s more detail in Burkes’ A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the Landed Gentry.

The Peerage also lists Charles Herbert Hornby who married Marguerite Ingram. I found a Charles Herbert HORNBY married to a Marguerite INGRAM on Dave Birley’s site.

He is son of Margaret Susannah BIRLEY and William Henry HORNBY MP, JP & DL and therefore brother of Sir William Henry HORNBY D.L., J.P (on The Peerage as Sir William Henry Hornby, 1st Bt). This would make Charles Herbert Hornby uncle of Sir Henry Russell Hornby, 2nd Bt..

There was also Charles Harry St. John Hornby. I found a Charles Harry St.John Hornby married to a Cicely Rachel Emily Barclay buried in some HTML on a file called Ancestors of Susan Mary Hornby. It shows that he was son of Rev. Charles Edward Hornby that I also found on Dave Birley’s site. I traced them back to Hugh Hornby and Margaret Hankinson, who are also parents of my GGGG grandmother Alice Hornby.

That leaves the following Hornby family loose-ends on The Peerage, but think I need to give this research a rest for a while or I’ll go insane … if I haven’t done so already:

Charles Beck
Robert
Ronald Thomas Dyson
William Hornby( former Governor of Bombay)
Geoffrey (have traced his ancestors but not back to mine)