HORNER, Sir John (1576-1659), of Mells, Som.

Horner’s single, undistinguished term as a Somerset MP in this period does not fully reflect his importance in that county’s affairs during these years. During the 1640s he had been one of the principal parliamentarians within Somerset, and a serious rival to John Pyne*. The Horners were a wealthy county family who had benefited conspicuously in the 1530s from the dissolution of the monasteries. The lands then acquired by them included those at Mells, ten miles to the south of Bath and 12 miles to the east of Wells, and that estate became their principal seat.31Collinson, Som. ii. 463. Their house there was described as ‘a fair large house of stone, very strong, in form of a H, two courts’.32Symonds, Diary, 32. They had also held lands at Cloford and had inherited lands at Podimore Milton.33Som. Protestation Returns, 219; VCH Som. ix. 157. Horner’s estates were thought, in all, to be worth about £1,000 a year.34Symonds, Diary, 32.

By the 1630s Sir John was established as one of the leading county gentlemen of the eastern half of Somerset. He had already served once as knight of the shire, having been an inactive Member of the 1626 Parliament. He was an active justice of the peace and in 1633 was among Somerset justices who wrote to the king asking for a proclamation to assist in the suppression of church ales.35Som. Assize Orders 1629-1640, 26, 28; CSP Dom. 1633-4, p. 350. However, in 1637 Secretary of State Edward Nicholas† noted that Horner and William Strode II* were ‘very refractory and disaffected’ over the issue of Ship Money.36T. Serel, ‘On the Strodes of Som.’, Procs. Som. Arch. Nat. Hist. Soc. xiii. pt. ii. 11. In the Short Parliament elections for the county seats Horner probably supported Alexander Popham* and Thomas Smyth I*.37Cal. Corresp. Smyth Fam. 195. In 1641 the Long Parliament began to name him to the major local commissions, such as those for the collection of the subsidy and for the disarming of Catholics.38SR; LJ iv. 385b. In the case of the subsidy commission, Horner is known to have performed some of the duties of that office.39Som. Protestation Returns, 187, 189, 233, 272.

The first key engagement in the civil war in Somerset were the attempts by both sides to establish control of the cathedral city of Wells in the first week of August 1642. In late July the 1st marquess of Hertford (Sir William Seymour†) arrived in the county to implement the king’s commission of array and chose Wells as his headquarters. But he did not remain there for long. By 1 August Horner and several of the other Somerset deputy lieutenants were making preparations to oppose him, about which they then wrote to inform Parliament. Within days he and Popham had raised 1,000 men. By 5 August the two of them, along with John Ashe*, had assembled a force of about 12,000 men at Chewton Mendip. They then marched to Prior’s Hill, which overlooked Wells from the north. Faced with this impressive show of force, Hertford abandoned Wells and retreated over the county border into Dorset. This left Horner and his fellow parliamentarians in secure control of the eastern half of Somerset.40LJ v. 278b; The Marquesse of Hertfort his Letter (1642), 5-9, E.109.24; A True and Exact Relation of all the Proceedings of Marquesse Hartford (1642, E.112.33); A Perfect Relation of All the passages and proceedings of the Marquesse Hartford (1642, E.111.5); More later and Truer Newes from Somersetshire (1642, E.112.12); A second Letter sent from John Ashe (1642, E.112.13); Fairfax Corresp. ed. Bell, i. 17; Clarendon, Hist. ii. 295, 298; Bellum Civile, 3, 9-10. The king’s decision in early 1643 to remove him from the commission of peace was, at least initially, impossible to enforce.41Docquets of Letters Patent ed. Black, 11.

Horner worked hard to try to ensure that the county remained in parliamentarian hands. In February 1643 he assisted Strode in suppressing the uprising at Bruton.42CCAM 741. The following May he was the Somerset deputy lieutenant Parliament asked to organise the suppression of the riots around Meare.43LJ vi. 30a; A. and O. Events however now turned against him and the other Somerset parliamentarians. The advance of Sir Ralph Hopton* towards Bath that summer cut through the heartland of Horner’s influence in the north-east corner of the county and Sir William Waller*’s retreat following the battle of Lansdown in early July left the royalists securely in control of that part of the county. Only the fact that Nathaniel Fiennes I* still held Bristol gave the local parliamentarians any hope of a recovery. Horner therefore now joined Fiennes. Arrangements would later be made by Parliament to reimburse Horner for the money he had lent for Bristol’s defence.44CJ iii. 240a; LJ vi. 315a; vii. 96a; CCAM 1494. His absence at Bristol allowed the king to stop at Mells on 16 July 1643 while travelling south from Bath. Charles spent two nights in Horner’s house before moving on to Nunney on 18 July.45Symonds, Diary, 30-1, 33. Horner was still at Bristol when the city fell to Prince Rupert on 26 July. According to Strode, Horner was present at the council of war earlier that day at which it had been agreed to open negotiating with Rupert, but that Horner had abstained during the vote.46W. Prynne and C. Walker, A True and Full Relation (1644), pt. ii, 8, 14-15, E.255.1. Horner was then one of the leading parliamentarians who were given specific permission under the terms of the articles of surrender to return to their estates.47Clarendon, Hist. iii. 111.

Somerset was still largely under royalist control in July 1644 when Parliament named Horner as sheriff for the county.48CJ iii. 561b; LJ vi. 634b; List of Sheriffs, 125. Yet this was not an appointment Parliament considered to be merely a nominal one. The hope was that Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex was about to smash royalist resistance in the West Country, raising the possibility that Somerset might soon be regained for Parliament. In such circumstances, Horner would be the man to reassert their authority in the county. That Essex’s western campaign proved to be a disaster meant that such hopes were premature. But eventually they did come to pass. During the summer of 1645 Sir Thomas Fairfax* set out to retake Somerset and in the campaign that culminated in his defeat of Sir George Goring at Langport on 10 July he succeeded. Parliamentarian control over Somerset was once more a reality.

One result was that Parliament now ordered by-elections to fill the vacant Somerset seats, which meant that Horner presided over these ‘recruiter’ elections. Had he not been sheriff, he would doubtless have stood himself, but, as he could not, his son, George*, stood as his substitute in the county contest. This gave Horner his chance to try to counteract the influence of John Pyne* and the Independent-dominated county committee. Amid bitter accusations of irregularities, Horner secured the return of George and of John Harington I* in the county poll held on 2 December 1645, although, following complaints from Pyne and his allies, this result was subsequently overturned by the Commons.49The Scotish Dove, no. 113 (10-17 Dec. 1645), 893-4 (E.313.1); no. 119 (21-9 Jan. 1646), 942-5 (E.319.17); Harington’s Diary, 22; HMC Portland, i. 318-19; CJ iv. 565b-566a. His success in swaying the borough results was more mixed. In the case of the protracted Ilchester election dispute, Horner was perhaps the only person involved whose conduct was not criticised by at least one side. By 1647, Horner, who was a Presbyterian in both politics and religion, was involved in the establishment of a Presbyterian hierarchy throughout the county.50Harington’s Diary, 47. Once this had been set up, he became the most prominent elder of the Wells and Bruton classis.51Shaw, Hist. Eng. Church, ii. 417. In 1647 he also presented a young Presbyterian clergyman, Richard Fairclough, to the living at Mells. Horner cannot have approved of the events of December 1648 and January 1649. The Rump nevertheless confirmed him in office as a justice of the peace and he continued to serve after the regicide.52C231/6, p. 130. It was in that capacity that he was consulted by the council of state in 1650 in a case involving a local woman.53CSP Dom. 1650, p. 196.

The elections to the first protectoral Parliament in 1654 allowed Horner to resume his parliamentary career after a gap of 28 years. With 11 seats having been allocated to Somerset and with the Somerset electorate tending to favour established county figures, Horner probably gained his seat with ease. However, as in 1626, he left no trace of any activity as a Member of this Parliament. In March 1655, two months after Parliament had been dissolved and in the wake of Penruddock’s rising, he was one of the Somerset justices of the peace to whom Oliver Cromwell* wrote advising them to be on their guard against further royalist plots.54CSP Dom. 1655, p. 93.

Horner died in October 1659 and was buried in the church at Mells.55Collinson, Som. ii. 464. He left only an unsigned and undated will which revoked a previous grant of his estates to trustees and which set out the legacies for his wife and his four surviving daughters. The prerogative court of Canterbury accepted its validity the following May after taking testimony from witnesses, including Fairclough, confirming its authenticity. Horner’s widow, who retained a life interest in the estate at Mells, became his sole executrix.56PROB11/298/521. Most of the other lands passed to their eldest son, George*.