Horsman
One-Name Study

Topics

• About the Horsman One-Name Study
• Variants
• Origin of the surname
• Frequency of the name
• Data
• DNA project
• Links
• Contact Details

About the Horsman One-Name Study

Welcome to the Horsman One Name Study.

If you are a Hors(e)man or have Hors(e)man ancestry I do hope you will get in touch with me. I cannot promise that I have information on your line, but will do my best to help.

As with most One Name Studies, my interest began with researching my own family tree. Sadly I can only trace my own direct line as far back as 1808, when John Horseman married Hannah Tiffany at Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire. However in my efforts to find John's death I started to collect all instances of the name, and soon built up comprehensive trees for the Hors(e)man families in the area.

Members of the various families subsequently migrated away from Yorkshire, and I have traced many of these to their new destinations, both in the UK and overseas.

A significant number Hors(e)man families are to be found in several other areas of the country, especially London, Lancashire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Devon and Warwickshire. I am gradually building up a picture of the families in these areas.

Variants

The registered surname is Horsman, with the variants Horseman and Horsaman.

Whilst the surnames Horsman and Horseman occur across the country, the variant Horsaman appears to have developed in the East Riding of Yorkshire from one particular family.

Anyone using Ancestry and FMP may like to bear in mind that the surname is often mis indexed as Hars(e)man or Hers(e)man. I've submitted corrections where I have found them.

Origin of the surname

English (Yorkshire): occupational name for a stable worker, from the Old English hors 'horse' + mann 'man'.

The Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames has a different definition: Occup. or official, 'the horseman' either a mounted soldier or breeder of horses.

Frequency of the name

1851 Census

Using information gleaned from Ancestry, which does not take into account incorrect transcriptions, there was a total of 941 people with the surname, of which there were 577 Horsman, and 364 Horseman. Of these, 51% were in Yorkshire, and just over 6% in London and Gloucestershire.

1881 Census

In the 1881 census it would appear that there are 1549 people with the surname; 1019 Horsman and 530 Horseman. Of these nearly 43% were in Yorkshire, with the next highest concentration of 15% in London.

In 2002 according to ONS statistics there was a total of 2671. These break down to 1748 Horsman and 923 Horseman.

Data

I am in the process of extracting details of Births, Marriages and Deaths from the GRO Indexes. To date I have:

Births - up to 1930

Deaths - up to 1919

Marriages - up to 1922

PROBATE

I have extracted all HORSMAN and HORSEMAN entries from the National Probate Index up to 1953.

I have an extensive record of all wills proved in Yorkshire.

DNA project

In 2007 I set up a DNA project with Family Tree DNA and already have seven members. Five of these have Yorkshire ancestors, with the others having Devon and Lincolnshire roots.

We have managed to prove that three of the Yorkshire members are connected to the same family. This is good news for the two members who were struggling with brick walls!

I hope more people will join, so that we can try and identify links between the various branches of the family - both home and abroad.

If you are a male Hors(e)man, please get in touch if you would like to get involved.

Links

To join the Horsman DNA project, please follow this link:

Join the DNA Project

To visit the Horsman DNA Project Results page, please follow this link:

Results so far

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Sue Horsman
61 Campion Hill,
Castle Donington,
Derby
DE74 2XH
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:

This page last updated 13 January 2012.

This page has been viewed 829 times.

Profiles of other one-name studies registered with the Guild may be found here.