[1] He was the son of Sir John Horsey (died 1546) and Joan Mawdley.
[1] He inherited most of his fathers lands, and the wording of the will suggests that the two were not close and the son was regarded as untrustworthy.
He eventually became addicted to gambling, and this along with his extravagant construction projects was a large drain on the family coffers.
[1] Sir John married Edith Phelips, daughter of Sir Richard Phelips and widow of the merchant John Stocker of Poole, on 14 December 1539,[1] and in 1546 the family estate, Clifton Maybank on the south side of Yeovil (in which his father's friend, the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, died on 11 October 1542), was largely rebuilt to create a mansion of grand proportions.
He is buried in Sherborne Abbey: an impressive tomb for both himself and his father, with life-size effigies of the two in medieval armour is to be found there in the Wykeham Chapel.