Thomas Horton (Gloucester)

Wotton House

Thomas Horton (1676-1727) was the owner of Wotton House, Gloucester|Wotton House, in Horton Road, Gloucester, which was built for him around 1707.[1][2] He was declared a lunatic.[3]

Horton was the son of John Horton of Elkstone, Gloucestershire and his wife Catherine, the daughter of Thomas Child of Northwick, Worcestershire.[4] He acquired Wotton by his marriage to Mary, the daughter of John Blanch.[5] He also inherited the manor of Broughton Gifford, Wiltshire in 1693.[4] By 1722 he was mentally unfit to manage his estate and a petition was presented to the House of Lords by his wife and two daughters for support.[4] He died in 1727 and was commemorated by a memorial stone at Elkstone.[6]

Horton was succeeded by his son Thomas (died 1755), later of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. He married Jane, daughter of Archdeacon Lewis.[4] She died in 1735 and was buried at Elkstone.[7] In 1746 he was subject to a "commission and inquisition of lunacy, into his state of mind and his property", records relating to which are held by the British National Archives.[8] Horton junior's will, which was dated 1735, left his estate to his sisters Eleanor, the wife of Richard Roberts and Elizabeth, the wife of William Blanch.[4] The will was not confirmed until 1763 due to legal disputes over the estate.[9]

  1. ^ Verey, David & Alan Brooks. (2002). The Buildings of England Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and the Forest of Dean (3rd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 502. ISBN 9780300097337.
  2. ^ Historic England. "Wotton House (1271681)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  3. ^ Gloucester: Outlying hamlets. British History Online. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d e Wilkinson, John (1859). "History of Broughton Gifford". The Wiltshire Archæological and Natural History Magazine. 5: 316, 326–7.
  5. ^ VCH Gloucestershire Volume 4 Gloucester: Outlying hamlets. 1988. pp. 398–9.
  6. ^ Frith, Brian, ed. (1990). Historical, Monumental and Genealogical Collections of Ralph Bigland Part 2. p. 580.
  7. ^ The visitation of the county of Gloucester, taken in the year 1623. 1885. p. 85.
  8. ^ Thomas Horton, esq, formerly of Wotton, Gloucestershire, now of Abergavenny,... National Archives. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  9. ^ Gloucester: Charities for the poor. British History Online. Retrieved 20 April 2019.