HORNBY
The name of Hornby was present in the Old Byland parish registers longer than any other and its first appearance in local records was the presence of John, Steven and Bryan Hornby at the boundary perambulation of 1650. The baptism of Thomas Hornby’s son George took place in 1653 followed by those of his other four children, Samuel [1655], Margaret [1656], Richard [1658] and Ann [1660] who perished in a snowstorm in 1671. Another Ann Hornby married Thomas Bolton in 1663 and another Thomas Hornby married Mary Harrison in 1673 when it is thought she lived at Caydale Mill. In 1673 George and Francis Hornby were both taxed for dwellings with two hearths and Thomas for one so the family had already established a substantial presence in Old Byland and may also have been related to Edward Hornby who was living in Scawton during the same period and had two daughters, Mary [1673] and Jane [1680]. A George Hornby was tenant of 13 acres in Scawton in 1694 including land that became part of Scawton Croft, Broxhill and Antofts.
In 1677 Thomas Hornby senior paid the second and third highest rents on the estate which were £18 9s for one farm and £20 for another previously held by the Halliday family. In the same year Thomas junior paid separate rents of £2 2s and £1 8s 6d, William paid £1 10s 8d and another Thomas paid rent of 1s 5d for a small cottage so the family had the most tenancies and two of the largest farms but within twenty years the situation had changed completely as in 1700 Matthew Hornby [called Long Matthew] paid rent of Tile House Farm where he and his wife Dorothy nee Harrison had three children, Ann [1692], Thomas [1694] and Jane 1696. The only other member of the Hornby family with a tenancy was Elizabeth who had a small cottage in the village.
Neither the Hearth Tax of 1673 or the rent roll of 1677 made any mention of William Hornby who had three children and as he was described as William the younger there must have been a William senior who is likely to have been living in the parish at the beginning of the 17th century and the next generation of Hornbys baptised between 1730 and 1747 included Mary daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth born 1730, John, Elizabeth and Thomas children of Edward and Mary born 1731, 1735 and 1741, Thomas the son of Thomas and Isabel born 1733, Thomas, John and William children of Matthew Thomas born 1735, 1736 and 1739 and Elizabeth and John children of John junior born 1745 and 1747. Elizabeth Hornby born 1745 married Thomas Leckenby of Hawnby in 1768.
The rent roll of 1772 showed John Hornby with 144 acres which is thought to have been Old Byland Hall and Widow Hornby with 76 acres but it is impossible to know which John and which widow they were. John son of Matthew Thomas married Mary Sunley in 1759 and they had three children, Grace [1763], John [1764] and Thomas [1744] and Grace created a link with another old established Old Byland family when she married Thomas Cole in 1786. The John who married Ann Cossins in 1772 is likely to have been the son of John junior born in 1747 and he and Ann had three children, William [1773], Martin [1782] and John [1786].
No tenancy records have survived for the next 76 years but the parish registers show that Thomas born 1774 married Elizabeth Leckenby and fathered five children, William [1804], Edward [1807], Thomas [1811], Mary [1813] and Matthew [1816] and another Thomas and his wife Jane nee Baker had four children Betty [1801], John [1804], Thomas [1807] and William [1810].
