History of the Fylde of Lancashire

by John Porter

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.

HORNBY OF RIBBY HALL.

Richard Hornby, of Newton, who was born in 1613, married Elizabeth, the daughter of Christopher Walmsley, of Elston, and had issue a son, William Hornby, also of Newton. That gentleman had several children by his wife Isabel, the eldest of whom, Robert Hornby, was born in 1690, and espoused Elizabeth Sharrock, of Clifton, leaving issue by her at his decease in 1768, three sons—Hugh, William, and Richard. Hugh Hornby took up his abode at Kirkham, where he married Margaret, the daughter and heiress of Joseph Hankinson, of the same place, and had issue—Joseph, born in 1748; Robert, born in 1750, and died in 1776; Thomas, of Kirkham, born in 1759, married Cicely, the daughter of Thomas Langton, of that town, and died in 1824, having had a family of two sons and five daughters; William, of Kirkham; John, of Blackburn and Raikes Hall, Blackpool, born in 1763; Hugh, vicar of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre, born in 1765; Alice, who became the wife of Richard Birley, of Blackburn; and Elizabeth. Joseph Hornby was a deputy-lieutenant of the county of Lancaster, and erected Ribby Hall. He married Margaret, the daughter of Robert Wilson, of Preston, by whom he had Hugh; Margaret, who espoused William Langton, of Manchester; and Alice, who died a spinster. Hugh Hornby, the only son, born in 1799, succeeded to the Hall and lands on the death of his father in 1832, and left issue at his own demise, in 1849, Hugh Hilton, Margaret Anne, and Mary Alice. Hugh Hilton Hornby, of Ribby Hall, esq., who married his relative, Georgina, the daughter of the Rev. Robert Hornby, M.A., J.P., in 1868, is the present representative of the family, and was born in 1836.

John Hornby, of Blackburn and Raikes Hall, married Alice Kendal, a widow, and the daughter of Daniel Backhouse, of Liverpool, by whom he had four sons—Daniel, born in 1800, who espoused Frances, daughter of John Birley, of Manchester, and dying in 1863, left issue, Fanny Backhouse and Margaret Alice Hornby; Robert, born in 1804, M.A., a clergyman and justice of the peace, who married Maria Leyland, daughter of Sir William Fielden, bart., and had issue, Robert Montagu, William St. John Sumner, Leyland, Frederick Fielden, Henry Wallace, Hugh, and ten daughters, the first and third sons being captains in the army, and the second in the royal navy; William Henry, of Staining Hall, J.P. and D.L., born in 1805, and Member of Parliament for Blackburn from 1857 to 1869, married Susannah, only child of Edward Birley, of Kirkham, by whom he had John, Edward Kenworthy, Henry Sudell, William Henry, Cecil Lumsden, Albert Neilson, Charles Herbert, Elizabeth Henriana, Frances Mary, Augusta Margaret, and Caroline Louisa, of whom Edward Kenworthy Hornby, esq., has sat as M.P. for Blackburn; John, M.A., formerly M.P. for Blackburn, and born 1810, married Margaret, daughter of the Rev. Christopher Bird, having issue, John Frederick, Wilfrid Bird, Edith Diana, and Clara Margaret. The Rev. Hugh Hornby, M.A., sixth son of Hugh Hornby, of Kirkham, was vicar of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre, and espoused Ann, daughter of Dr. Joshua Starky, a physician, of Redbales, having issue one son, William, now the Venerable Archdeacon Hornby, M.A., and the present vicar of St. Michael’s, born in 1810. Archdeacon Hornby married, firstly, Ellen, daughter of William Cross, esq., of Red Scar, and four years after her decease, in 1844, Susan Charlotte, daughter of Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby, K.C.B. The offspring of the earlier union were two—William Hugh and Joseph Starky, both of whom died young; whilst those of the second marriage are—William, Hugh Phipps, Phipps John, James John, William Starky, Susan, and Anne Lucy, the eldest of whom, William, died in 1858, aged thirteen years.

LECKONBY OF LECKONBY HOUSE.

John Leckonby, the earliest of the name we find mentioned as connected with Great Eccleston, on the borders of which stood Leckonby House, was living in 1621, and was twice married—first to Alice, the daughter of Thomas Singleton, of Staining Hall, and subsequently, in 1625, to Marie, the daughter of Henry Preston, of Preston. Richard Leckonby, the eldest son and heir, was the offspring of his first marriage, and like his father, became involved in the civil wars on the royal side. Richard succeeded to the family estates sometime before 1646, for in that year he compounded for them with Parliament. He left issue at his death in 1669, by his wife, Isabel, a numerous family—John; Richard, of Elswick; George; William, of Elswick; Sarah; Martha; and Mary, who married Gilbert Whiteside, of Marton, gentleman. John Leckonby inherited the estate, and resided at the ancestral mansion—Leckonby House. He married Ann, the daughter of William Thompson, gent., of Little Eccleston, but dying without offspring, was succeeded by his brother Richard, who had espoused Ann, the daughter of William Hesketh, of Mains Hall. The children of Richard Leckonby, of Leckonby House, were William; Richard, who was born in 1696, and afterwards became a Romish missionary; and Thomas, also a missionary, who died at Maryland in 1734. William Leckonby, the eldest son, occupied Leckonby House, after the decease of his father, as holder of the hereditary estates. He espoused Anne, the daughter of Thomas Hothersall, of Hothersall Hall, and sister and co-heiress of John Hothersall, and had issue—Richard; Thomas, born in 1717, who entered the Order of Jesus; William, of Elswick, who died in 1784; Anne, born in 1706; Bridget; and Mary, who became the wife of Thomas Singleton, of Barnacre-with-Bonds, gent. Richard Leckonby, who succeeded his father in 1728, inherited, in addition to the lands in Great Eccleston and Elswick, the extensive manor of Hothersall, and by his marriage with Mary, the daughter of William Hawthornthwaite, of Catshaw, gent., came into possession, on the death of her brother John Hawthornthwaite in 1760, of Catshaw, Lower Wyersdale, Hale, Luddocks, and Stockenbridge. Notwithstanding these large accessions to the original family domain, Richard Leckonby managed, by a long career of dissipation and extravagance, to run through his resources, mortgaging his estates, and bringing himself and his family to comparative poverty. He died in 1783, at about 68 years of age, having survived his wife many years, and was buried at St. Michael’s-on-Wyre. His offspring were two sons, the elder of whom was thrown from a pony and killed in early youth; whilst the second, William, met with a fatal accident when hunting in Wyersdale the year before the death of his father. William Leckonby, left, at his untimely death, by his wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of James Taylor, of Goosnargh, gent., two sons and a daughter. Of these children, Richard, the eldest, died in 1795, when only sixteen years of age; James, the second son, died in infancy; and Mary, their sister, married in 1799, at the age of twenty-two years, Thomas Henry Hale Phipps, of Leighton House, Wiltshire, a justice of the peace and deputy-lieutenant of his county, by which union, Leckonby of Leckonby House, became a title of the past.

LEYLAND OF LEYLAND HOUSE AND KELLAMERGH.

Leyland House was occupied during the latter half of the seventeenth and part of the eighteenth centuries by a family of wealth and position, named the Leylands of Kellamergh. Christopher Leyland, the first of the line recorded, resided at Leyland House in 1660, and married in 1665, Margaret Andrew, of Lea, by whom he had issue—John; Ralph, died in 1675; Anne, born 1671; Ellen, born 1679; Susan, died 1670; another Ralph, born 1680 and died 1711; Francis, died 1674; Bridget, died 1687; Roger, died 1678; and Thomas, who died in 1682.

John Leyland, who succeeded to the Kellamergh property and Leyland House on the death of his father in 1716, married, in 1693, Elizabeth Whitehead, and had offspring—Christopher, born 1694; Thomas, born 1699, afterwards in holy orders; Joseph, died 1709; Ralph, born 1712; John, died 1716; and William, who espoused Cicely, widow of Edward Rigby, of Freckleton, and daughter of Thomas Shepherd Birley, by whom he had two daughters, one of whom, Jane Leyland, subsequently married Thomas Langton.