HORNE, Lawrence (fl.1607-1630), of Milford Street, Salisbury, Wilts.

Namesakes of this MP were baptized in Ashwater, Devon, in 1561 and Boldre, Hampshire in 1576, but the family with which he was presumably connected had been resident in Salisbury since the late fifteenth century. IGI Devon; Churchwardens’ Accts. of St. Edmund’s and St. Thomas’s ed. H. Swayne, 39. Horne himself first appeared in the municipal records in 1607 as a constable; in the following year he was elected to the corporation as a member of the Forty-Eight, but did not take office until October 1610, shortly before his elevation to the Twenty-Four. He served as mayor in 1612-13, and master of the recently built workhouse in 1619-20. Wilts. RO, G23/1/3, ff. 198, 203v, 212, 278v. Elected to Parliament in December 1620, he left no mark upon the records of the lengthy session. However, while at Westminster he petitioned the Crown about new paving for the market-place and streets, and during the summer recess he was appointed treasurer of the corporation’s charitable interests in London. Ibid. ff. 281v, 287v.

In the summer of 1626 Horne became embroiled in a dispute between the corporation and Mayor Robert Jole, a dissolute character who had fallen drunk into a ‘filthy miry ditch’ while visiting Horne. The two men were also accused of swearing in Horne’s son, then an apprentice in London, as a Salisbury freeman, without the consent of the rest of the corporation. Jole was removed from office, and Horne was disgraced: in August 1626 he was denied appointment to the municipal bench, and after April 1627 he ceased attending council meetings altogether. Assessed for tax in the city in October 1628, he may have left shortly afterwards, for in November 1629 the corporation complained that he could not be induced to ‘come to the city’ for a hearing related to his arrears of taxes and dues. E179/199/393. His failure to settle these outstanding debts led to him being disenfranchised in November 1630. Nothing further has been discovered about him.