Missing Horne found?

It seems there are quite a few stories in this branch of the family that aren't quite true. James Wilson Horne and his wife did not both tragically die in the same year, leaving their children orphaned (they died about three years apart). Their children were not all taken in by James's brother Robert, nor were they taken under the wing of the Lord Provost of Edinburgh (wishful thinking!). As far as I can tell, the orphaned children were split up, since they ended up scattered around the globe:

Margaret Kinnimunth Horne ended up living in Linlithgow, where she died in 1923. Various censuses show her as an unemployed boarder. One census even lists her as an imbecile! I can't find any evidence of her being a schoolteacher, as the family stories claim.

David Horne was supposedly the captain of a ship (highly unlikely, since he would've been a teenager at the time) and went to sea. Family stories say he disappeared in San Francisco some time before 1873, most likely the victim of murder since he had a temper and probably got himself into trouble. More about him in a minute...

John "Jack" Stafford Horne married a woman named Mary Brown, and their son, James Wilson Horne, was born in Glasgow in 1881. Jack ended up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada... and is buried in the same plot with two of his brothers. I have no idea what happened to his wife. His son married Margaret Crawford in 1906 in Glasgow... and then the trail goes cold.

Isabella Horne, the first baby girl to have this name, died at the age of six months.

James Wilson Horne was said to have gone in search of his older brother, David, and was washed overboard near Cape Horn. No... I'm not kidding. I'm sure the poor kid didn't appreciate the coincidence in his last moments, though.

Stafford Horne left Scotland and had a few kids in Illinois before bringing his family to Victoria. He's another of the brothers buried in the aforementioned plot.

Isabella Horne, the second child to bear the name (the family seemed to adhere to the Scottish naming pattern, so I guess they needed an Isabella) married one of the sons of Barry Sullivan (the actor) in Lancashire, England in the 1880s. They later moved to Australia.

Thomas Henderson Horne was supposedly one of the children in need of guardianship, but I lose track of him between 1871 (on the census just before the death of his mother) and 1881 (where he turns up working on a farm in Ontario, Canada). He moved to Victoria and raised his family there. He's the third brother buried in the aforementioned plot.

William Stafford Horne was another baby who only lived a few months. I didn't even know about him until I found the birth and death records. Family stories never mentioned him (though they did mention the first Isabella); I don't know why William was forgotten.

Now for David Horne (see above)... Obviously, an 18-year-old as the captain of a ship is pretty unlikely. Getting oneself into trouble because of a bad temper... more likely, but probably a dramatic story that was made up because nobody knew what actually happened to David. Thanks to the Internet, the mystery may now be solved.

There is a David William Horne, born c1855 in Scotland (our David was actually born in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, but he was raised in Edinburgh from the age of 3... so perhaps he thought he was Scottish), who was living in Sonoma County, California (not too far from San Francisco) from the 1870s onward. The censuses say he arrived in either 1870 or 1871. This could very well be our David. Perhaps he decided to settle in California. It's said that he was never heard from again... but if we think about this, we can see that that doesn't necessarily mean he was killed. If he'd written home in 1871, who would've been there to receive the letter? His parents were gone and his siblings were scattered about. The children on both sides of the Atlantic most likely never knew what had become of their siblings. How sad!

David William Horne (1855-1939) married a woman named Elizabeth Watts (1860-1910) and had seven children:

Jessie Elizabeth Horne (1880-1961)
Marian "May" C. Horne (1881-?)
Hadie Watts Horne (1884-1955)
Richard William Horne (1886-1960)
Jeanie R. Horne (1888-?)
David J. Horne (1894-1970)
Archibald Charles Horne (1897-1957)

Since these are fairly recent dates, I haven't been able to find much. I've only found three descendants in the next generation, and they're all from the girls; I don't even know if the boys married. I would dearly like to know if there are more Hornes out there... and if so, find out what their family stories say about how their ancestor, David Horne, arrived in North America!