He came to America in 1757 (17 years old), bringing a great deal of silver with him. He settled at Williamsburg VA where his father’s brother, Moses Thomas Hornsby was living. He died on the old home place in KY and is buried in the Hornsby Cemetery on the farm.

Joseph H. Hornsby, Jr. was a prosperous merchant in Williamsburg before the Revolution and "he lived in a style befitting his handsome income". He owned the house on Nicholson Street now known as "Peyton Randolph House" (colonial lot 236) in 1783. Legend says that "he sent to England for Masters and Tutors for the education of his five children".

In 1772, his uncle, Thomas Hornsby, left him 100.000 pounds of silver and 8000 acres of land.

In 1774, he was entrusted with funds for the relief of Boston. Joseph Hornsby, Jr. was named a Major in the Williamsburg militia on 13 Sep 1775 and a member of Bruton Parish Church. After the was no record is found in Williamsburg. He perhaps moved to Albemarle Co, VA, near his father-in-law’s 15,000 acre estate. He wrote later about the fruit trees he brought from Albemarle Co. VA to KY. He was associated with his father-in-law in a (at least one) large land deal, where for 5000 Spanish dollars, Dr. Walker, his two sons, and six sons-in-law, including Joseph Hornsby, Jr. purchased 125,000 acres in KY.

Between 1783 and 1786, Joseph Hornsby, Jr. received five land grants in Jefferson Co. KY (Part became Shelby Co. KY), including 2400 acres on Plumb Run and 4000 acres on Fox Run . Prior to April 1798, he moved to these grants. Upon his death he left his descendants 8,000 acres of land and many slaves.

His diary, written in ink between April 1798 and Aug 1804, at his home in southwest Shelby Co. (near where Clark’s Station on the Southern Railway now stands), was devoted almost entirely to a record of the planting of rare flower seeds, the transplanting of valuable vines and shrubs, and to visits and inter-relations with his relatives and neighbors. His beautiful home at that place was called "Grasslands".

Neither his planting diary, nor a will written in 1799, mentions his wife, and family tradition ways that he moved to KY with the children after his wife’s death. He made his home at "Grasslands" near present Simpsonville, Shelby Co., KY, on the larger grant. The original home burned long ago, however, a wine cellar and slave quarters, said to be the original, stand at the site. The family cemetery is in a nearby field.

The following inscriptions are from gravestones found in the cemetery in Shelby County, KY:

"The memory of Joseph Hornsby
Son of Joseph & Hannah Hornsby
who was born in Yarmouth Norfolk
England May the 23rd, A.D. 1740
& Died in Shelby County KY Nov
the 17th 1807 Aged 67 Years
5 Months and 25 Days"

" In memory of Joseph Hornsby
Son of Joseph & Mildred Hornsby
Who was Born in James City Co, VA.
March 28th, A.D. 1777 & Died
in Shelby Co. KY May 31st, 1841
Aged 64 Years 2 Months & 3 Days."

"Cynthia - Wife of Joseph W. Hornsby
Born Jan 9, 1788 -- died Sep 18, 1858
Aged 69 Years , 8 Mo. 9 Ds. Rest in Peace."

The first Hornsby mentioned in the family records is Joseph, who lived in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk County,England. The men of his family were naval officers. Neither he nor his wife, Hannah Linkley, came to America.
Their son, Joseph Hornsby, came when seventeen years of age, and settled at Williamsburg, Virginia, (where he had an uncle living, Thomas Hornsby, a brother of his father). He married, about 1770, Mildred Walker, a daughter of Dr. Thomas Walker and his wife, Mildred Thornton.
Joseph Hornsby was a man of considerable wealth, and is said to bave lived in a style befitting his handsome income. His wife, Mildred Walker, must have sympathized with his ideas and ambi tions, for it is said that tutors and masters, even for music and dancing, were brought from England
to train their five children. Their home was noted for its lavish entertaining, and is said to have been fashioned after the old English models. After the death of his wife he moved to Shelby County, Kentucky, with his children. Here he died when sixty-seven years of age, leaving eight thousand acres of land and many slaves to his de scendants. He also left rare old silver and quaint relics, among these an immense Bible, brought in his youth from England, which is still in a good state of preservation, as is also his diary. The entries in
the latter more than a century old bear testimony to a character of lofty principles and deep religious convictions.

The children of Joseph Hornsby and his wife, Mary Walker Hornsby, were:

1. Hannah Hornsby, born March, 1771; married Thomas Allen.

2. Mildred Hornsby, born February 20, 1774; married her cousin, Nicholas Meriwether Lewis, and died October 20, 1847.

3. Joseph Hornsby, born March 28, 1777; married Cynthia Allen. To them were born ten children: Joseph W., John A., Anne M., Thomas W., Dr. Nicholas Lewis, of St. Louis, Mildred Thornton, Henry Hancock, Dandridge C., William F., and Robert I. Hornsby.
4. Thomas Hornsby, born January, 1779; married Frances Henderson.
5. Sarah Hornsby, born October 17, 1780; married John Allen.

Joseph N. ALLEN

BORN: 20 JUN 1815, Shelby Co., KY
DIED: UNKNOWN
BURIED:
MARRIED: Mrs. Elizabeth (Thomas) BEARD, 1863

1 JohnALLEN
2 SarahMargaretHORNSBY
3 John ALLEN
4 MaryAnn COCHRANE
5 Joseph H. HORNSBY,Jr.
6 Mildred Thornton WALKER
7 Robert ALLEN
8 Deborah MONTGOMERY
9 Thomas POLLOK
10 Mary Ann POLLOCK
11 Joseph HORNSBY
12 Hannah LINKLEY
13 Thomas WALKER Dr.
14 Mildred THORNTON

Notes

Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 6th ed.,
1887, Spencer Co.

JOSEPH N. ALLEN, M.D., was born in Shelby County, Ky., June 20, 1815. His father, John Allen, was a native of Virginia, of Scotch-Irish descent. He was a farmer by vocation. In religion he was an Episcopalian. He came to Kentucky in 1794, and died here during the cholera epidemic of 1835. His wife, Margaret Hornsby, was also a native of Virginia, and of English ancestry. Joseph N. Allen was reared on a farm, but educated for a physician at Lexington, Ky., and Cincinnati, Ohio. After graduating, about 1845, he resided in Platte City, Wis., for about ten months, and then went to New Orleans. In the latter part of 1846 he entered the quartermaster’s department in the army destined for Mexico, in which war he served until the close. For a while he resided in Paducah, Ky. In 1849 he went to California, over the plains on horse-back, spent some time in Valparaiso, and in 1852 returned to Spencer County, Ky. In 1863 he married Mrs. Elizabeth (Thomas) Beard, widow of Stephen M. Beard, and daughter of A. W. Thomas, who was born in Virginia, March 24, 1797. He came to Kentucky, engaged in farming, represented Spencer County in the State Legislature several terms, and died April 3, 1883. Mrs. Allen was born March 15, 1828, and is the mother of two children by her first husband: Emma T. (Schofield) and Bell M. Her mother, Elizabeth, was a daughter of Col. William and Ruth (Corn) Boyd. The Doctor is a member of the Presbyterian Church, is a Free Mason, and with his wife resides on a farm of 325 acres on the Louisville and Taylorsville Turnpike.

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