Category: Burslem

William Frederick Horry (1843-1872)

William Frederick Horry, born in 1843, was a charismatic yet ruthless killer who owned Burslem’s George Hotel. After a tumultuous marriage, he shot his estranged wife, Jane. Convicted of murder, he was sentenced to death and hanged on April 1, 1872, at Lincoln Castle Prison.

The condemned cell at Lincoln Castle Prison where William Horry spent his last days.

Despite his superficial charismatic charm, William Frederick Horry, the landlord of Burslem’s George Hotel, was a cold-blooded, ruthless killer.

Born on November 17th, 1843, in Boston, Lincolnshire, he was the son of William Horry, senior, a successful brewer.

When he left school, young William became a trainee manager at Parker’s Brewery in Zion Street, Burslem. He lived at the George Hotel in Nile Street, where he fell in love with Jane Wright, the hotel’s barmaid.

Jane left the George Hotel and went to work at the Sneyd Arms Hotel in Tunstall. William realised he could not live without her. He asked her to marry him. She consented, and William’s father gave them £800 to buy the George Hotel. The couple married in 1867 and had three children.

William who was a heavy drinker convinced himself that Jane was flirting with male customers. At night, he walked the streets looking for prostitutes or drinking with criminals in back street beer houses.

William’s father and Jane’s brother Thomas, a solicitors clerk, came to Burslem to find out why the marriage had failed. William told them Jane had committed adultery with three of the town’s leading citizens. When the two men investigated the allegation, they discovered that William had lied to them.

William and Jane separated in March 1871. She took the children and went to live with his father in Boston. William sold the George Hotel and went to Nottingham.

He visited Boston and asked Jane to take him back. She refused, and William started divorce proceedings, claiming she had committed adultery with five men.

While waiting for the case to be heard, William bought expensive clothes and often visited the Potteries. Early in January 1872, he stayed for a week visiting brothels in Hanley and drinking with friends in Burslem.

On Saturday, January 13, William returned to Nottingham, where he bought a revolver and a hundred cartridges.

William left Nottingham and went to Boston, where he visited his father’s home where Jane was living. She invited him into the house. He followed her along the passage leading to the breakfast room. As she entered the room, William pulled out the gun and shot her in the back. The bullet passed through her left rib and penetrated her lung. Jane died a few minutes later. William was detained by members of his family, who called the police. He was arrested and charged with murder.

William’s friends in Burslem launched a public appeal to pay for his defence.

He was tried at Lincoln Assizes on March 13 and pleaded “Not Guilty”. His trial lasted three hours. The jury took 15 minutes to convict him.

William stood in the dock and watched Mr Justice Quain don the Black Cap before sentencing him to death. He was taken to Lincoln Castle Prison and hanged on Easter Monday, April 1st, 1872.

Post: Copyright © Betty Martin and David Martin, 2023

Photograph: © Copyright Dave Hitchborne, licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

A History of Burslem

There was no M.P. for the town until 1832. The whole of the Potteries was formed into a constituency. It sent two members to Parliament. This early recognition showed that the six municipalities shared common interests. It marked the beginning of nearly eighty years of debate over unifying local government in the district.

To read the whole post, click on “Staffordshire Archives and Heritage” below.

Jenny Lewis StaffordshireRO's avatarStaffordshire Archives and Heritage

by Matthew

Burslem is situated in the north-west of the City of Stoke-on-Trent, one of the six towns which form the City.

When it was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086, Burslem was called Barcardeslim (Burgweard’s Lyme).  It was not a large village consisting of just four households and one plough team. The other resource mentioned is two acres of alder wood. Its value was 10 shillings.

Through the medieval period, Burslem was not a centre of any importance. It was part of the parish of Stoke on Trent and was subject to the Tunstall manor court. A survey in 1563 reported 30 households for the area served by the chapel of St John. The village was agricultural and did not have good communications. However the occupants of the poor farms had beneath their feet mineral resources, which over the next two centuries produced steady growth turning Burslem into…

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New life for an old building

Ambitious plans for the Queen’s Theatre

Ambitious plans have been made to save “Burslem’s new town hall”, a listed heritage building that houses the Queen’s Theatre and the Prince’s Hall.

The proposals made in a report prepared for Stoke-on-Trent City Council by architectural consultants Affinity Design and Management would cost over 12 million pounds to implement.

The theatre and the hall were abandoned many years ago, and it will cost about £320,000 to make the building safe.

If the council accepts them, the proposals could make the theatre a conference centre, an exhibition hall or a venue for Asian weddings and the foyer could become a bar or restaurant.

The Prince’s Hall would be turned into retail shops or become one or two-bedroom flats with a shared roof garden.