Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Horsfield, Thomas Walker

1397043Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 27 — Horsfield, Thomas Walker1891Gordon Goodwin

HORSFIELD, THOMAS WALKER (d. 1837), topographer, was for some years minister of a dissenting congregation meeting at the Westgate Chapel at Lewes, Sussex, and more popularly known as the ‘Bull Meeting.’ He also took pupils. Horsfield compiled for John Baxter (1781–1858) [q. v.] ‘The History and Antiquities of Lewes and its vicinity … with an Appendix containing an Essay on the Natural History of the District by Gideon Mantell’ (with plates and a supplement), two vols. 4to, Lewes, 1824–7. This was followed by a more important undertaking, ‘The History and Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex,’ two vols. 4to, Lewes, 1835. In the compilation of the first volume, which contains East Sussex, Horsfield was assisted by William Durrant Cooper [q. v.]; the second volume, on West Sussex, is mainly an abridgment of the histories of Dallaway and Cartwright. In 1835 Horsfield was appointed to succeed Benjamin Rigby Davis as presbyterian minister at Chowbent, Lancashire, where he died on 26 Aug. 1837, leaving a widow and eight children (Gent. Mag. 1838, pt. i. 102). He was elected F.S.A. in 1826.

[Lower's Worthies of Sussex, p. 331.]

G. G.