HORNER, Thomas (1688-1741), of Mells, Som.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1713 - 1715
1715 - 30 May 1716
27 June 1716 - 12 Apr. 1717
1727 - 1741

Family and Education

bap. 3 July 1688, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of George Horner† by Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Robert Fortescue of Filleigh, Devon.  educ. Trinity, Oxf. 1705.  m. 1713, Susanna (d. 1758), da. of Thomas Strangways I*, Dorset, sis. and coh. of Thomas Strangways II*, 2s. d.v.p. 1da.  suc. fa. 1708; assumed add. name of Strangways on his wife’s succeeding to Melbury 1726.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Som. 1711–12; freeman, Bath 1713.2

Biography

A substantial Somerset landowner, whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all sat in Parliament, Horner was returned for the county in 1713. Classed as a Tory in the 1713 Worsley list, he left no mark on Commons proceedings. After the accession of George I he continued to sit as a Tory. He died on 19 Nov. 1741 when his Somerset estates passed to his younger brother and the Dorset properties of the Strangways family to his only daughter, who had married Stephen Fox†, later 1st Lord Ilchester.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

  • 1. IGI, Somerset; Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 663, 665–7, 680.
  • 2. Bath RO, Bath council bk. 4, p. 43.
  • 3. Harbin, Som. MPs, 189.