Kennith Horlor

• General Notes
  • 2. CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories.
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    A VALENTINE STORY: SWEETHEART OF A CONNECTION
    By Ken Horlor   machinerydirect@xtra.co.nz
    Christchurch, New Zealand
    
    I grew up with only a rough outline of the story of my great-
    grandfather and how he was an orphan. I had always been fascinated
    with what may have been the circumstances surrounding Moses HORLOR,
    and resolved with the help RootsWeb and the Internet to find out more.
    
    Moses HORLOR was born in a small town called Nailsea, about 10 miles
    southwest of Bristol, England, in January 1837. The family of six,
    father Anthony HORLER, mother Sarah (nee CLARK or CLARKE) and their
    children: Caroline (born a twin 1829, sister died in 1834), Sarah Ann
    (b.1832), Moses (b.1837), and Ellen (b.1839) were a poor coal-mining
    family.
    
    Tragedy struck with the deaths of both parents. Anthony died in
    February 1847 followed by Sarah in September 1848. The cause of their
    deaths is not known, but disease was commonplace. Thus, the children
    were orphaned. The older sister Caroline was already in service with a
    Mrs. HARRIS who lived next to the Guinea Street Hospital in Bristol.
    Little is known of what became of Sarah Ann, but a family legend is
    she immigrated to America.
    
    The younger children, Moses and Ellen, were sent to the Clutton Union
    Workhouse in the Parish of Camerton. This in itself is interesting, as
    Nailsea was in the Parish of Bedminster and its workhouse would
    ordinarily take the orphans. However, a settlement with the Church of
    England dictated how you were handled when destitute and requiring
    help from the church.
    
    Conditions in the workhouse would have resembled a prison. The diet
    was very basic and a limited education was provided. Men and women
    were separated, families split up. Only the very old could stay
    together with special permission from the workhouse master, while solo
    mothers were kept apart from others and made to wear different clothes
    that identified them as immoral women.
    
    Relief was at hand though as Moses and Ellen had not been forgotten.
    The Rev. Frederick BROWN, the rector of Nailsea, was concerned enough
    about the fate of the children to write two letters to George MULLER,
    who since 1836, had been taking in orphans in Bristol, and who in 1849
    had built a new orphanage on Ashley Down, just outside the city.
    
    Getting admittance to the orphanage was no easy task, as proof had to
    be produced of the children's legitimacy and that both parents were
    dead. This was provided in the form of a marriage certificate for
    Anthony Harlow (sic) and Sarah Clark, their death certificates and the
    baptism of both Moses and Ellen. A further certificate was required
    from the Clutton Workhouse agreeing to take the children back if they
    proved difficult.
    
    Moses and Ellen HORLOR were admitted into the Ashley Down Orphanage on
    6 December 1849. Ellen was the 100th fresh orphan, meaning she was the
    100th one admitted to the new facility. George MULLER wrote: "This
    case is one of the most destitute that almost ever has come before
    me."
    
    Moses HORLOR left the orphanage upon being apprenticed to a Mr.
    EDMONDS, a baker, of Wells. The story is EDMONDS beat him and
    returning to the shop after making deliveries one day, Moses dropped
    his basket and ran off. He joined the Army, and served more than 20
    years with the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers. A study of his pay book
    revealed the stories of his service in India are true. He was there
    during the Indian Mutiny in 1858.
    
    Upon marrying Caroline FIANDER in 1875 he left the Army and settled in
    South Acton, now part of London. He had six children. The second son,
    Henry Valentine HORLOR, was my grandfather. He was the first to
    immigrate to New Zealand in 1902, followed over the next two years by
    the rest of the family.
    
    Ellen HORLOR also immigrated to New Zealand. She did not marry, and
    was in service her whole working life. Much of that time was working
    for the CLOSE family of Lambeth, Surrey. Caroline died while visiting
    Ellen there. It was Ellen who advanced the 20 pounds sterling my
    grandfather required to cover the fare to New Zealand. An additional
    five pounds was provided by his eldest sister.
    
    At RootsWeb I found the site run by Tony MEIGHAN site at
    http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~horlergenealogy/
    where I left a message on his guest book. He replied and I joined his
    group. MEIGHAN supplied a lot of information about my own family in
    New Zealand.
    
    It was through this group in early 2001 that I was able to contact
    Frances Denning Hobbs and her sister, Margaret. Through a simple
    posting of theirs to the group mentioning they had a Moses HORLER who
    moved to Nailsea and came up for settlement in 1786, I recognised the
    place name, and enquired directly. Through studying parish records we
    have discovered that this Moses HORLER is the grandfather of our Moses
    HORLOR. This connected our family in New Zealand, with their tree.
    With the connections through RootsWeb, the Horlor family in New
    Zealand can now trace this branch of the family to the early 16th
    century.
    
    For those looking for details of a relative in England who may have
    been an orphan, don't overlook the Muller Foundation,
    http://mullers.org/ who keep good records of their admissions.
    For years I had thought my great-grandfather had been a Barnado's
    Child, yet a simple search by typing his name into Google.com brought
    up his name listed amongst other orphans at Ashley Down in the 1851
    census. http://hometown.aol.com/k2m3/orphan.html
    
    Moses Horlor certainly had an eventful life -- orphaned, serving in
    India during the Indian Mutiny, London, and then emigrating to New
    Zealand in his old age. He was buried in the Karori Cemetery,
    Wellington, New Zealand in 1904. His sister Ellen, who was in the
    workhouse with him, and the orphanage, was buried in the Karori
    Cemetery in 1923. She bought her own house in New Zealand, in Hawker
    Street, Wellington -- a great achievement.
    
    Ellen would have been proud of the 20-pound investment she made in her
    nephew Henry Valentine HORLOR, as he was awarded an MBE by the Queen.
    Horlor Street in Naenae, Lower Hutt (near Wellington) is named after
    him. Moses Horlor's grandchildren all did well in business with one
    being awarded an OBE.
    
    It took less than 100 years to turn the destitute label around.