PETERSFIELD.
THE HEAD MASTER OF ETON COLLEGE.—The Rev. James John Hornby, M.A., the new Head Master of Eton College, is the youngest son of the late Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby G.C.B., of Little-green, near Petersfield, by Maria Sophia, eldest sister of General Sir John Burgoyne. He was born on the 18th of December, 1826. His father's sister was the wife of the late Earl of Derby, so that he is first cousin to the Premier. His eldest sister is the wife of Sir William Denison, Governor of Madras. When at Eton, the Rev. J. J. Hornby was a pupil of Dr. Goodford, the present Provost. He was celebrated in the school for his love of athletic sports, and with Mr. Chitty, his close companion, carried everything before him. Since then Mr. Hornby has been one of the leading aquatics at Oxford University. He is highly distinguished for his classical attainments.
Illustrated London News 25-Jan-1868
THE NEW HEAD MASTER OF ETON. The Rev. John James Hornby, M.A., who has succeeded the Rev. B. Balston as Head Master of Eton, is not only cousin to Lord Derby, but their respective ancestors have, by repeated matrimonial connections, kept up a close relationship between the two families in several preceding generations. The mother of the present Lord Derby, Edward Geofry Stanley, fourteenth Earl, was Charlotte Margaret, a daughter of the Rev. Geoffry Hornby, Rector of Winwick, in Lancashire. She was married, 1798, to Edward Smith Stanley, who was created Baron Stanley in 1832, and succeeded to the earldom, as thirteenth Earl of Derby, on the death of his father in 1834, but died in 1851. This lady had not lived to take either title, dying in 1817. Mrs. Stanley, however, was her husband’s cousin, since the Rev. Geoffry Hornby, in 1772, had married Lucy, daughter of James Smith Stanley, Lord Strange, son of the eleventh Earl; while, on the other hand, Charlotte Stanley, a daughter of the twelfth Earl (by his first marriage, not by his second with Miss Farren, the actress), had, in 1796, married Edmund Hornby, Esq., of Dalton Hall, in Westmorland, eldest son of the Rector of Winwick, a gentleman who survived until 1805. The Stanleys and the Hornbys have thus intermarried with each other during nearly a hundred years; but there appear to be still more ancient links of association, if not affinity, between their houses, as may be indicated by the name of Hornby Castle, which belonged to Sir Edward Stanley in the reign of Henry VIII. The rectory of Winwick has always been held by the Stanley family connections. It descended from the Rev. Geoffrey Hornby, who died in 1812, to the Rev. James John Hornby, uncle of the subject of this memoir, and from him to the Rev. Frank George Hopwood, who married a sister of the present Lord Derby. But the Rev. Geoffry Hornby had another son, bom in 1785, who entered the Navy, served through the French War, commanded a fleet, held office as Lord of the Admiralty, and Comptroller-General of the Coast Guard, and became Sir Phipps Hornby, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, and Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom. This gallant officer, residing at Little Green, Petersfield, and marrying, in 1814, a daughter of Lieutenant-General Burgoyne, a sister of Field Marshall Sir John Burgoyne, Bart., was the father of the new Head Master of Eton College; whose sister is, moreover, the wife of Sir William Denison, K.C.B., Governor of Madras, and formerly Governor-general of Australia.
The Rev. J. J. Hornby was born in 1826, at Winwick. He was educated at Eton, under the Rev. Dr. Goodford, now Provost; and at Balliol College, Oxford, where, in 1849, he took a First Class in Classics, besides distinguishing himself in aquatic sports and in all athletic exercises. In 1849 he became Fellow of Brasenose; and, in 1854, Tutor and Principal of Bishop Cosen's Hall, at Durham University. Returning to Oxford in 1864, he became Classical Lecturer at Brasenose; and, in 1866, was Senior Proctor of the University. At the close of the year he was elected second master at Winchester College, which post he retained until his present election.
The portrait of Mr. Hornby is engraved from a photograph by Messrs. Hills and Saunders, of Oxford and Eton.