Thomas Horton
Thomas Horton was a London merchant. In his will he called himself a citizen and mercer of London. The mercers were the city's dealers in fine cloth, silks and linens, and the senior of the livery companies. He was born about 1555. The Visitation of London of 1633-1635 heads his family's pedigree with an unnamed "Horton of Cowle in com. Chessh. & Darby," that is, of Coole in Cheshire. That link has not been proved from records of the time.
By 1580 he had married Margaret, daughter of Lawrence Culverwell. Their children were baptized in the parish of St James Garlickhythe: Thomas on 13 November 1580, Lawrence on 22 October 1581, Elizabeth on 11 March 1583 and Margaret on 22 March 1584. About 1586 the family moved to St Martin Vintry, a riverside parish of wine merchants, where a son John was born. Margaret was still living in 1596.
After 1596 he married a second wife, Catherine Satchfield. They had two daughters, Sarah, born about 1598, and Parnell, born about 1600. Sarah married Roger Conant, a London salter, at St Ann's, Blackfriars, in 1618.
He made his will on 6 March 1615, still of St Martin Vintry. He divided his estate into three equal parts. One part went to "my wellbeloved wife" Catherine. One went to his children John, Sara and Parnall. The third paid his legacies. These included annuities to his brother William Horton, his sister Margaret Williamson and his married daughter Margaret Culverwell, wife of Richard Culverwell. Sara and Parnell were to have fifty pounds each on their wedding days, provided their marriages had the consent of their mother and of her brother, Richard Satchfield. His grandson Thomas, son of the dead Lawrence, was to have forty pounds at twenty-one.
His eldest son got almost nothing. The will leaves to "my son Thomas Horton, whome I have alreadie verye bountefullie and lovinglye advanced," twenty-six shillings and eight pence "in full satisfaction of his parte and portion." His son John received his rights in lands in St James Garlickhythe and in Bell Alley, Coleman Street, and the residue, and was made sole executor. Gold rings went to friends, cousins and godsons. The will was proved on 17 January 1621. No burial record has been found.
His son John became a London merchant in his turn and was living in 1634, married to Elizabeth Crowley of South Mimms. Through Margaret Culverwell the family was tied to the Culverwells, a family of Puritan ministers, which may be how a mercer's daughter came to marry Roger Conant.
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Cite: Heirology, "Thomas Horton (b. 1555)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/thomas-horton-1555-483b44.