HONOUR, St Albans, 19th century
July 2001
James Norris (jamalfnor @t barclays.net) of Thetford, Norfolk says that Through the IGI and the 1851 and 1881 censuses I have found a strong line of ancestors called Honour (with several variant spellings) stretching back into the early eighteenth century in and around St. Albans. My interest starts with Sarah Honour, born in St. Albans in 1815 or 1816, who married my great great grandfather William Norris in 1836 and settled in Edgware and Little Stanmore Middlesex. In 1881 at least two women of the family were employed sewing straw hats in St. Albans. For several generations the preferred church was St. Stephen's, St. Albans, with occasional forays into St. Peters and the Abbey itself.
You failed to identify an individual or couple to be the subject of your query - and I do not answer open-ended questions about particular surnames. However you may be interested to know that the name Honour (and variants) are mentioned in the following St Albans Trade Directories:
Pigot's 1839: No entry
Poll Book 1847: Honnor, John Walter, Holywell Hill
Post Office 1850: [?? relevant part of page missing on the copy I use]
Post Office 1855: Honor John Walter, grocer, Holywell Hill
Post Office 1862: no entry
James Norris (jamalfnor @t barclays.net) replied: Thank you for finding John Walter Honour or Honnor in the two directories you mentioned. I think he was the youngest son of Henry and Ann Honour (née Jones), and was christened at St. Stephen St. Albans 28th December 1794 This would make him an uncle of my great great grandmother Sarah Norris (née Honour), who was born late 1815 and christened early in 1816 at St. Peter St. Albans. My great grandfather James Norris, her first-born son, was married in 1868 in the church where she was baptised rather than in Edgware or Little Stanmore where he lived for the best part of 85 years. Although most of the Honours known to me were faithful to St. Stephens a few were baptised or married in St. Peters or the Abbey. I shall investigate further in the primary sources in August.
Following his visit to Hertfordshire he wrote: Many thanks for your most recent helpful comments. I spent eight hours at the Hertford Record Office on Tuesday this week. This confirmed some matters previously problematical, and showed that the Honour family of St. Albans was compact and consistent (in its naming of children) during most of the 18th century. It also strikingly showed additional connections between the Norrises of Stanmore and the Honours of St. Albans. I also worked on the Eversleys and the Thomas Norris problem, of which more later. Next morning I received communion at the altar where my namesake great grandfather was married in 1868, in the church where his mother Sarah Honour was baptised in 1816 (St. Peter's).
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See also HONNOR/HONOUR, St Stephens, St Albans, circa 1800
Page relocated April 2005