John Horne (bef. 1754 - 1823)

Born before 27 Jun 1754 in Watten, Caithness, Scotland

Husband of Elizabeth (Williamson) Horne — married 3 Oct 1783 in Halkirk, Caithness, Scotland

Descendants

Died 5 Oct 1823 after age 69 in Great King St., New Town. Edinburgh, Scotland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Nat Campbell [send private message]

Biography

John was a twin with brother James, born in Watten, Caithness to William and Elizabeth Horne (nee Sandison). Both boys were christened on 27 June 1754.

He became tacksman of Clyth, and was later a magistrate (JP), and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the county. He lived at Stirkoke, near Wick, Caithness in Scotland.

He married 3rd Oct 1783 and had 7 children with Elizabeth Williamson of Banniskirk, Halkirk, Caithness.

Children include William (1785-?), Donald (1787-1870), James (1789-1816), Isabella (1792-?), Margaret (1795-1878), Elizabeth (1798-?) & John (1800-1841).

He was appointed a Major, and his son Donald a Lieutenant, in the Caithness Volunteers and they raised the Stirkoke Company in 1799. According to Captain John Henderson, Stirkoke was the ‘most showy and commodious’ house in Caithness. With his multiplicity of landholdings, John Horne had his hands full, and decided to look for a tenant for West Watten. In 1805 it was advertised to let.

His son James joined the East India Company as a Private and died in Vizagapatam, Madras, India in October 1816.

In 1823, when John Horne died at the age of 69 (or 70), while staying with his son William at his Edinburgh home in Great King Street in the New Town, he was a wealthy man. Sir Benjamin Dunbar of Hempriggs owed him £42 but this was small beer. His son William held £1,132 for him in funds. He left his sons William and Donald £4,000 each and young John £,3000, to go towards ‘his education and outfit as an Artillery Cadet in the service of the Honourable East India Company’. He left his eldest daughter Isabella (Bella), now Macleay, an annuity of £50 a year, as well as the £1,000 provided in her marriage contract. William, as the eldest son, inherited the Stirkoke estate.

The document very carefully made sure that Margaret Horne's husband, Allan MacFarlane, would not get the opportunity to squander any of John Horne's money:

... to the children of Margaret Horne my second daughter the sum of two thousand pounds the interest of which is to be paid to her for her own personal use and upon her own proper receipt during her life exclusive of the jus mariti of her husband for whose debts and by whose acts and deeds the same shall not be affordable and the Capital to be divided among her Children at her death in such shares and divisions as she may appoint and failing of such appointment to be divided equally amongst them share and share alike it being understood that their respective shares of said principal sum shall not rest or be payable until they attain majority or are married if females ...

The executor of his estate was his eldest son, William Horne, Advocate, and Sheriff Depute of the County of Haddington, and the document mentions also his second son, Donald Horne (Writer to the Signet), his only other surviving son John Horne (who is to become an Artillery Cadet in the service of the Honourable East India Company), his eldest daughter Isabella Horne (the wife of Kenneth Macleay Esq. of Newmore), his second daughter Margaret Horne and his youngest daughter Elizabeth Horne.

James, a son of John's son Donald Horne, went on to live at Stirkoke House.

Sources

• McFarlane family tree handed down to Nat Campbell.
• The Hospitable Mansion of Langwell by Michael Moss with William Parente
• http://users.tpg.com.au/havik/genealogy/MMFFP.html