This blog is part of a continuing series in which heraldic coat of arms, tombs, deeds, chancery records, and wills help piece together a medieval family tree.
Per his 11 September 1552 will, William Fermor – son of Thomas Richards alias Fermor by his second wife Emmote (Hervey) Wenman – bequeaths…
unto my good Aunte Elizabeth Horne wydowe one soveraigne of golde of xxs And to her sonne my Cosyne Edmund Horne Esquire one of my yonge horses of my owne brede of thage of three yeares and upwards[1]
Who is Elizabeth Horne and her son Edmund?
If Elizabeth Horne was an aunt by blood, then there were possibilities that may amend the family tree. One possibility was Elizabeth, known sister of Thomas Richards alias Fermor. The other possibility was an unidentified sister of either Thomas Richards alias Fermor’s second wife Emmote, or his first wife Alice, or perhaps the identify of an unknown wife.
After an exhaustive search, it has been determined and supported by evidence that Elizabeth (Delaford, Blount) Horne was an aunt by marriage to Elizabeth Norreys as described below.
Robert Horne and Joan Fabian
Robert Horne (b. ca. 1412), citizen and fishmonger merchant of London, was elected alderman of London on 27 July 1444.[2] Based on a chancery record of 11 November 1432 for a debt owed to John Shirley, Esquire, Robert was related – probably as brother – to Simon Horne and John Horne both of Daventry, Northamptonshire, and to Richard Horne, citizen and draper merchant of London.[3]
Per deed dated 03 July 1485, Robert and John Horne are parties to transactions in Great Norcroft and Losingrove, land given to the University College in the village of Hailey, Oxfordshire, once a parish of Witney. In that deed, “a headland of arable land in a field next to Crawley inside the tithing of Hayle” lies between Robert Horne to the west and Thomas Richards alias Fermor to the east.
In those same University College records, a William Horne of “Wyttney, Oxon., Rough Mason, and brother of John Horne of Bladon, Oxon., Husbandman” is also listed as a party to a 19 May 1509 deed witnessed by Richard Wenman, wool merchant and William Fermor’s step-brother. William Horne, “carpenter,” is also party to a 09 November 1523 deed.[4] Based on dates, William and John Horne are presumed to be nephews of Robert Horne.
We know Robert Horne married Joan Fabian, daughter of Edward Fabian, evidenced by the heraldry displayed at Sarsden House described by Richard Lee in his 1574 Visitation of Oxfordshire.
IV. Arg. on a chevron engrailed Gu. between three unicorns’ heads erased Az. a crescent Or. [HORNE.]
V. Erm. three fleur-de-lys within a bordure engrailed Gu. [FABIAN OF ESSEX]
VIII. HORNE impaling FABIAN.
XXXIII. HORNE, as IV. impaling, FABIAN, as V[5]
[Prior to his marriage with Joan Fabian, Robert Horne may have married Agnes Wytham, daughter and heir of Richard de Wytham and Alice Daundency, and who was also the widow of William Browning. Agnes Wytham (d.1444) was the adopted daughter and heir of her cousin John Golafre of Sarsden House, the son of Thomas Golafre and Margaret Foxley. John Golafre was married three times and had no children. Evidence: 1) Baker’s History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton, Volume 2 (1844); 2) Page et al’s A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4 (1924); and 3) Turner’s Visitation of Oxfordshire (1571) in which the 1574 visitation describes “XXXVI quarterly 1. HORNE, 2. DELAFORD, 3. FABIAN, 4. GOLAFRE” as well as “XXXIV HORNE impaling GOLAFRE.”]
Robert and Joan had two sons and two daughters: John, Robert, Jane, and Anne.[6]
After Robert Horne’s death circa 1457, Joan (Fabian) Horne remarried to John Fettiplace, citizen and draper of London, and lord of the manor of East Shefford, Berkshire. They had four sons Anthony, Sir Thomas, Richard, and William Fettiplace, and a daughter, Margaret.[7]
After the death of John Fettiplace in August 1464, Joan (Fabian, Horne) Fettiplace remarried that year to John Estbury of Antwick’s Manor in Letcombe Regis, Berkshire.
Anne Horne, daughter of Robert Horne and Joan Fabian
Anne Horne (b. ca. 1455) first married Sir John Stanley of Elford, Tamworth, and Wigginton in Staffordshire, and of Aldford, Etchells, and Alderley in Cheshire. He was also King’s esquire, Sheriff of Staffordshire, and Knight of the Shire for Staffordshire.
Top right, “The 3 wives of Sir John Stanley (as suggested) taken from Elford Church windows anno 1537.” Upon closer inspection of the heraldic robes, the last wife to the right may be Anne Horne.
After Stanley’s death on 29 June 1476, Anne remarried before 31 January 1478 to Sir William Norreys, son of Sir John Norreys and Alice Merbrooke. Norreys was first married to Joan Vere, daughter of John Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and secondly to Isabel Ingaldesthorpe (d.1476), widow of John Nevill, Marquess of Montagu. In 1479, William and Anne sued John Stanley, Esquire, for a third part of the manors of Clifton-Campville, Haunton, and Pipe in Staffordshire, which they claimed was Anne’s dower.[8]
To further confirm the Horne-Fettiplace-Norreys connections, in a record circa 1525, prayers were requested for the souls of various siblings of William Fettiplace (d. 26 December 1528), of East Shefford, Berkshire, including “Robert Horne, John Horne, Joan Horne, and Madam Ann Horn… brothers and sister by the mother’s side” and also for the soul of Sir William Norreys “husband of the said Madam Ann.”[9]
William and Anne (Horne, Stanley) Norreys had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married William Fermor as his fourth wife. We know this from the heraldic brasses on William and Elizabeth’s tomb, as well as the 1574 description of stained windows at Sarsden House, Oxfordshire.
Source: http://somertonoxon.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Somerton-Church-Booklet_P3.pdf
After Norreys’ death, Anne remarried to William Harcourt. She has often been confused as the wife to Sir John Harcourt who had married Anne Norreys, sister to William Norreys, Anne Horne’s husband. After the death of William Harcourt, Anne (Horne, Stanley, Norreys) Harcourt remarried John Grey, Esquire.
John Horne, son of Robert Horne and Joan Fabian
John Horne married Elizabeth Delaford, the sole daughter and heiress of Pernell Whitton (d.1493) and William Delaford of Iver, Buckinghamshire (d.1494).[10] Elizabeth was also the widow of Richard Blount (d. 31 November 1508), sheriff for Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire in 1502, with whom she had Richard, Anne, and Elizabeth.[11]
In a chappell on ye south side of the Church of Adderbury are the following inscriptions… On a pillar at ye lower end of the church: Neare this font lyeth Elizabeth wife to Richard Blount & John Horne, Esquire, heir to Delaford & mother to Jane Bustard wch Elizab. Died an. Dom. 1554.
Sarsden House:
XXXII. Quarterly 1. HORNE, as IV. 2. A chevron between three pheons, 3. FABIAN, as V. 4. Paly of six (untinctured).
Bruerne Abbey, Mr. Bridges’ House
V. Quarterly 1. Arg. a chevron engrailed Gu. between three unicorns’ heads erased Az. [HORNE.] 2 Az. a chevron Gu. between three pheons Or. [DELAFORD] 3. Erm. three fleurs-de-lys within a bordure engrailed Gu. [FABIAN.] 4. Paly of six Arg. and Sa. [STRELLEY.][12]
As seen in the glass now installed at the University of Oxford’s Balliol College, Lee may have slightly erred in his description, with the quartering as “1. HORNE, 2. STRELLEY, 3. FABIAN, 4. DELAFORD.”
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/balliolarchivist/6992603484/in/album-72157629955843265/
William Delaford’s father John had arms “sable, a pale argent” and the Delaford arms with the pheons described above is actually from William’s mother, Agnes Spycer.[13]
Elizabeth (Delaford, Blount) Horne died in 1554 and was buried at St. Mary’s Church, Adderbury.
John and Elizabeth (Delaford, Blount) Horne had at least one daughter, Jane, and one son, Edmund.
Jane Horne, daughter of John Horne and Elizabeth Delaford
Jane Horne married Anthony Bustard as can be seen by the Horne coat of arms quartered with the Bustards of Adderbury.
Argent, on a fess gules between three pellets as many bustards or, within a bordure engrailed azure [BUSTARD], impaling, Quarterly, 1 and 4. Argent, a chevron engrailed gules between three unicorns’ heads erased azure. [HORNE.] 2 and 3. Ermine, three fleurs-de-lys gules within a bordure engrailed of the last. [FABIAN.][14]
Edmund Horne, son of John Horne and Elizabeth Delaford.
File 1127, No. 75 (1544-1547) Edmund HORNE, esquire, son of Elizabeth Horne, v. Robert BEKINGHAM. Contempt of a decree concerning boundaries of pasture in Sarsden Heath and Lyneham and the manor of Merriscourt (in Lyneham) and Lyneham. See File 828, No. 9. Oxford.[15]
Edmund Horne married first to Elizabeth Tame, daughter of Jane Grevill and Thomas Tame.[16]
IV. Arg. a chevron engrailed Gu. between three unicorns’ heads erased Az. [HORNE OF SARSDEN], impaling. Quarterly: — 1 and 4. Arg. a griffin Vt. and a lion Az., both combatant. [THAME.] 2 and 3. Cheeky Or and Az., on a bend Gu. three lions passant Or.
XIX. HORNE, as IV., impaling, Quarterly 1 and 4. Arg. a griffin Vt. and a lion Az. crowned Arg. combatant. [THAME.] 2 and 3. Cheeky Or and Az. on a bend Gu. three lions passant Or. [WARREIN.] Over it written, E.HORNE & E.TAME
Church of Shipton under Whichwood:
This picture presentith to yo’r reme’brance
the last symplytud of all yo’r bewtye & fame
also hyt sygnyfieth the mortall chance
of Elysabeth daughter and heir of Tho. Thame
Which somtyme was ye dear and loving wife
of Edmond horne esq. durynge all her lyfe
Whose mortall bodye now consumed to dust
was layd here in grve as by nature neds hit most
In the year of Chrsts his incarnacon’
a thowsande fyve hyndredth fortye eight
the fyftenth of august her v’tuus enclynacione
brought her to the place of ye eternall lyght.[17]
Family relationships can also be inferred from chancery records, wills, and land deeds.
File 1131, No. 29 [1544-1547]. Edmund HORNE, esquire, and Elizabeth his wife, great-granddaughter and heir of John Tame, esquire, v. Thomas VARNEY, esquire, Elizabeth his wife, and others. Manor of Fairford and land there formerly in the guardianship of Edmund Tame, knight, deceased, younger son of the said John. Gloucester.[18]
File 1234, No. 32-35 [1547-1551]. Edmund HORNE, esquire, v. Walter BASKERFEELDE and Jane his wife, late the wife of Thomas Tame, esquire. Manor of Stowell, advowson of the church, and lands in Stowell, Yanworth, and Chadworth, all of the entail of Richard Conwaye, clerk. Gloucester.[19]
Additionally…
By 1470 Hampnett manor belonged, with Stowell manor, to Elizabeth, daughter of William Clifford, and her second husband Thomas Limerick (d.1486). It passed to Limerick’s daughter Agnes, wife successively of William Tame and Sir Robert Harcourt (d. by 1504), lord of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire. Sir Robert’s heir Richard Harcourt also married Agnes and in 1508 feoffees settled the reversion of Hampnett on her heirs. Agnes died before Richard (d.1513), and her son Thomas Tame owned Hampnett together with Stowell in 1522. Thomas Tame evidently held it at his death ca.1545 and Edmund Horne, who married Thomas’ daughter Elizabeth, sold it in 1550 to [his-brother in-law] Anthony Bustard of Adderbury, Oxfordshire.[20]
Elizabeth (Tame) Horne died on 15 August 1548 and Edmund Horne married secondly to Amy Clarke, daughter of Valentine Clarke and Elizabeth Brydges.
XX. HORNE, as IV., impaling. Or, two bars Az. in chief three escallops, in fess a mullet Gu. [CLARKE.] Over it written, E.HORNE & AMYE CLARKE[21]
Edmund Horne died in 1553 with a will written 12 October 1553 and his inquisition post mortem conducted soon after.[22]
Philip Farmer is the author and publisher of “Thomas Fermor and the Sons of Witney” tracing the family history from 1420 to 1685, and “Edward Farmar and the Sons of Whitemarsh” following their 1685 arrival from Ireland into Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Harlan County, Kentucky.
Footnotes
[1] Hutchens, “Will of William Fermor of Somerton,” Oxfordshire Family History Society (OFHS.uk). nd. An abstract also found in Blomfield, History of the Present Deanery of Bicester, Oxon (1882), p.105.
[2] Beavan, The Alderman of the City of London, Temp. Henry III – 1912, vol.2 (1913), pp.9, 164. Robert Horne of Sarsden House, Oxfordshire, has been confused with other Robert Horne’s, primarily Robert Horne of Appledore, Kent, possibly a vintner, the son of Henry Horne, and husband to Isabel who he left a widow. Separating their biographical attributes requires more research, to include: a) imprisonment at Newgate in 1444 for his involvement in Jack Cade’s Rebellion, and by paying a large ransom of 500 marks, was spared his life; b) killed at the Battle of Towton on 29 March 1461 during the War of the Roses; c) Sheriff of London from 1446-1447; d) Sheriff of Kent from 1451-1452; e) Mayor of London (sic? William Horne, salter); and e) Member of Parliament for Kent in 1460. The Horne’s of Kent may have had a coat of arms described in simple terms as a “chevron between three bugle horns” of various tinctures and extra charges. Reference: 1) Woodger, “Horne, Henry, of Horne’s Place in Appledore, Kent,” The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421 (1993); 2) Harris, “The Longleat House Extracted Manuscript of Gower’s Confessio Amantis,” Middle English Poetry Texts and Traditions (2001), pp.80-81; 3) Robertson, “Chapel at Horne’s Place, Appledore,” Archaelogia Cantiana, vol.14 (1882), p.366; 4) Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem Preserved in the Public Record Office, vol.2 (1915), p.613; 5) Mercer, “Lancastrian Loyalism in Kent During the Wars of the Roses,” Archaeologia Cantiana, vol.119 (1999), p.228; 6) Andrews, “Ockholt, alias Ockwells Manor, and its Owners,” The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Archaeological Journal, vol.24 no.1(1918), p.21; 7) Armytage, A Visitation of the County of Kent, 1663-1668 (1906), p.96; and 8) Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1884), pp.507-508.
[3] TNA C 241/225/52.
[4] UC:E6/1D/1; UC:E6/1D/2; UC:E6/1D/4; Darwall-Smith, “Early Records of University College, Oxford,” Oxford Historical Society, vol.46 (2015), pp.374-380.
[5] Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), pp.8, 10. A John Horne, sheriff of Berkshire and Oxfordshire temp. Henry VII, had arms “Gules a chevron argent, twixt three escallops or.” Fuller, A history of the worthies of England… (1662), p.106.
[6] Thrupp, The Merchant Class of the Medieval London (1948), p.350; Collections Towards a Parochial History of Berkshire (1783), p.66.
[7] Andrews, “Ockholt, alias Ockwells Manor, and its Owners,” The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Archaeological Journal, vol.24 no.1 (1918), p.21.
[8] Wrottesley, “Extracts from the Plea Rools, Temp. Edward IV., Edward V. and Richard III,” Collections for a History of Staffordshire, ser.2 vol.6 pt.1 (1903), p.121.
[9] Collections Towards a Parochial History of Berkshire (1783), pp.68, 73. Page 73, of which there are two same numbered pages, has “John Horne, John Horne*…” footnoted as “Joan Horne…” Page 68 lists “John Horne, Joan Horne…”
[10] Page, A Victoria History of the County of Buckinghamshire, vol.3 (1925), pp.286-294; Burke, Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, vol.2 (1835), p.167; Croke, The Genealogical History of the Croke Family, originally named Le Blount, vol.2 (1823), pp.255-256.
[11] Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, vol.3 (1836), p.167.
[12] Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), pp.196-197, 19.
[13] Reference XVIII in Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), p.9; Croke, The Genealogical History of the Croke Family, originally named Le Blount, vol.2 (1823), p.254/255. The latter has the arms described as “argent, a pale sable.”
[14] Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), p.196.
[15] List of Early Chancery Proceedings Preserved in the Public Record Office, vol.9 (1963), p.57.
[16] Gibbs, “Palimpsest Brasses – Ancient Request to Aylesbury Church,” The Buckinghamshire Miscellany (1891), p.158; Maclean et al, The Visitation of Gloucestershire Taken in the Year 1623 (1885), p.260.
[17] Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), pp.9, 83. Other sources for Thame coat of arms has “a dragon vert” (e.g. Maclean et al, The Visitation of Gloucestershire Taken in the Year 1623 (1885), p.260.)
[18] List of Early Chancery Proceedings Preserved in the Public Record Office, vol.9(1963), p.64. Elizabeth Tame, daughter of Thomas Tame, son of William Tame, son of John Tame and Alice Twiniho (Maclean et al, The Visitation of Gloucestershire Taken in the Year 1623 (1885), p.260.)
[19] List of Early Chancery Proceedings Preserved in the Public Record Office, vol.9(1963), p.232.
[20] Herbert, A History of the County of Gloucester, vol.9 (2001), pp.81-91.
[21] Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), p.9.)
[22] TNA PROB 11/36/241; TNA E 150/820/1; TNA C 142/101/98.