52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 6 - Favorite Name

This week's 52 Ancestors prompt  is "Favorite Name". Favorite name could be a name of an ancestor that makes you smile. Perhaps it's an unusual name.

Hornor family crest from Colonial Families of the USA

I don't really have a favorite name, but one that's always intrigued me is Deliverance Horner. That's definitely not a name you hear now! Deliverance's parents were Joshua and Mary Hornor of Burlington County, New Jersey. They were most likely Quakers from England. Deliverance married George Clevenger on July 19, 1737 and they were the parents of my ancestor Nancy Ann Clevenger Matson.

Joshua Hornor entry from Colonial Families of the USA

Joshua Hornor was born in in Tadcaster, England according to Colonial Families of the USA on Ancestry.com. Tadcaster is a town and parish in North Yorkshire.

Deliverance Horner, child of Joshua and Mary in Colonial Families of the USA

The list of Joshua and Mary Hornor's children in Colonial Families of the USA includes Deliverance and gives the date of her marriage to George Clevenger as July 19, 1737. The American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) gives Deliverance's birth year as 1710, although I see December 18, 1708 on several Ancestry.com trees. Her year of death is given as 1756 in Frederick County, VA on several trees, but I haven't found a source for that. It does match up with my Clevenger family coming from Virginia.

I was surprised to find two more Deliverance Horners. One was born in 1685 and married Thomas Stokes. They also lived in Burlington County, New Jersey. Another was married to Baley Babb in 1785 in Frederick County, VA, so there's another reference to Frederick County. I would guess they're all related somehow, so probably worth doing a bit more research.

The use of Deliverance seemed to fall off quite a bit in the US after the 1850s. There were 122 entries for Deliverance in the 1850 census as compared to 79 in the 1860 census. There were only 12 matches for Deliverance in the 1940 census. The name hasn't disappeared entirely, but is very rare now. There are 22 entries for Deliverance in the Social Security Death Index, with the most recent one born in 1981.

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.