RICHARD HORNETT : 1833 - 1902
Richard was the third child of Charles and Elizabeth Hornett born, according to the baptism register of Christ Church, Cosway Street, Marylebone, on 3rd October 1833; his baptism was on the 5th June 1836, the same day as that of his 2 siblings, Henry and Francis. His exact birthplace is unknown although the family's address at the time of the baptism was at Duke Street, Marylebone, and Richard's birthplace was recorded as Paddington in some later census records.
Richard was recorded living with his family at the time of the 1841 census, when he was aged 7, and also in 1851 when aged 17 and simply stated to be 'at home'. He did not follow what became the family trade of building and decorating and, instead, took up bookbinding. This was not, perhaps as odd a divergence as it may seem as one of Richard's uncles, John Thorburn, was a bookbinder, as were others in his branch of the family. A cousin, also named John Thorburn, had developed a bookbinding business in Fleet Street and perhaps this is where Richard trained. It is the case that by the time of the 1861 census, when Richard was still living with his family in Drury Lane, he was employed as a bookbinder and this remained his occupation for the rest of his life.
Richard married for the first time in December 1862, by when his address had changed to 17 Houghton Street. His wife was Esther Drew who was probably born in January 1831 and baptised as Hester in 1837; it seems that Esther's family had lived in the same area for many years and she gave her address as 87 Drury Lane at the time of the marriage, the same as Richard's at the time of the 1861 census. There are no records of Richard and Esther until the 1871 census when they were recorded living at Bloomsbury Street, Richard still working as a bookbinder and Esther as a charwoman at Somerset House. The couple do not appear to have had any children, at least, there were none present with them at the time of the census and no other record of any has yet been found.
At some point before mid-1878 Richard and Esther moved to 24 Drury Court, where Esther died on 7th June of that year, having suffered from what was recorded as phthisis and anasarca; modern terminology would call these conditions tuberculosis and generalized oedema, the latter probably being a symptom of other underlying problems rather than an illness in itself. Esther must have had some property or other assets as Richard applied for Administration of her estate, which he was granted in July 1878; whatever she left, Esther's estate was valued at 'under £200', still a not inconsiderable sum in those days.
Richard continued to live in Drury Court and was recorded there, on his own, in April 1881 when the cenusus was taken. On Christmas Day 1881, he married a widow, Caroline Connell, though whether or nor she'd really been married before is debatable. She had probably been born Caroline Redding in Bloomsbury in 1844, though the evidence is confused. In 1871, Caroline was apparently living with Henry Connell, a commercial traveller, at 87 Drury Lane, an address previously known to the Hornett family. She was described as being Henry's wife although no marriage record can be found, and they also appear to have had 2 children, Daniel and Henry; there are possible birth registrations for both children, but as O'Connell, rather than as Connell.
As with his first marriage, there is no evidence that Richard and Caroline had any children, and the 2 that Caroline may have had with Henry Connell also seem to have disappeared from view, Daniel after 1871 and Henry after 1881 when he was probably recorded still living at 87 Drury Lane. In 1891, Caroline and Richard were recorded still living at 24 Drury Court, the address at which Caroline died in December 1893, aged 48, having suffered from bronchitis for a couple of weeks, according to her death certificate. Freely available antibiotics were still more than 50 years in the future.
Richard's third marriage came on the last day of October 1897 in Islington, when his new wife was Mary Ann Smith, a spinster aged 53. She had been born in the village of Dickleburgh in Norfolk, probably in early 1845; she seems to have been in London from some time before 1871, when she was recorded as a housekeeper at the 'Albert Edward' public house in Bolton Road, Hampstead; in 1881, she was probably managing a public house, 'The Hope', in Cow Cross Street, Finsbury, and in 1891 she was manager of 'The Globe' in Hatton Garden. Where and how Richard met her is unknown, particularly as Richard was living in Iverson Road, Kilburn, at the time, but they were together for the rest of his life.
At the time of the 1901 census, Richard and Mary Ann were recorded living in Winchester Avenue, Kilburn, by when Richard seems to have given up working and was recorded as 'living on his own means'. Richard died at the same address in January 1902, aged 68, apparently having suffered epileptic fits and cardiac failure; he left an estate valued at £879. Mary Ann lived on until April 1911; she was recorded as a patient at the old Charing Cross Hospital in the Strand in the 1911 census, taken on 2nd April, although she actually died there on that day and should have been excluded.
Although there is no obvious record of Richard having had any children, the 1901 and 1911 censuses recorded a Henry John Hornett who claimed to have been born in Drury Lane in the first half of the 1870s; by itself this is of no consequence, however, it appears that when he married in 1915, Henry John Hornett named his father as Richard John Hornett, a bookbinder. There is no birth registration for Henry and he doesn't appear in the 1871 or 1881 censuses, but the coincidence is interesting, if nothing else.