Miss Jane Broke and Miss Frederica Broke

12 March 1861

Volume 2, page 296, sitting number 2473.

Identified in the Silvy daybooks as ‘Misses Broke, daughters of Capt. Horton (R.N.),’ these are the daughters of Captain William Horton of the Royal Navy, later Rear-Admiral William Horton, CB.

Born in 1820 in France, William Horton entered the Royal Navy on 7 December 1832. He became a Lieutenant on 7 March 1842, a Commander on 18 August 1855, and a Captain on 15 April 1862. He was appointed a Companion of the Bath in 1877 and he died at Bury St Edmunds on 22 March 1883.

He appears on the 1881 census, a retired Rear-Admiral living at The Hall in The Park, Little Livermere, Suffolk. Also present on the night of the census were his wife, Anna, and his unmarried daughter, Jane A. Brooke [sic], age 28, a British Subject born on the Greek island of Zante [Zakynthos]. Also present on the night of the census were Sir Lambton Loraine, a Captain in the Royal Navy, and his family. Mrs Horton had twenty servants to help her run her house.

Jane A. Broke also appears on the 1861 census, together with her sister Frederica M. H. Broke, two years her junior. The place of birth for both girls is given as ‘Ionian Islands, Zante.’ They and their mother were staying with their aunt Louisa Broke (their mother’s sister-in-law) in Bath. Their mother’s surname is given as ‘Horton.’ Presumably she had previously been married to a Mr Broke and Captain Horton was the girls’ step-father. According to the IGI, Anna Maria Broke married William Horton in London on 1 December 1859.