Of gentle blood, part shed in honour's cause,--
_Each_ parent sprung.
In the note on this passage, Pope expresses a kind of preference for his
descent on the mother's side, calling the Turners an ancient family, which
means that they possessed hereditary wealth through many generations.
Families of really ancient gentry, which, like _birth_, is but a relative
term, are generally found recorded in the Visitation Books of the Heralds
for the counties in which they dwelt. Whatever antiquity may be claimed
for this family, who resided in the county of York, it is certain that no
pedigree of them was recorded at any of the Visitations of that county, of
which three were held during the time of the Turners' residence, viz., in
1585, 1612, and 1665; in which last year, too, the large list of
"Disclaimers" does not contain them. The only assistance we derive from
the labours of the heralds is this. In a manuscript lately added to the
British Museum (Additional, No. 12,482) a list of persons whom, in 1665,
the heralds summoned to appear, or intended to do so, contains the name of
"Mr. Turner, of the parish of St. John del Pike, York," who is
unquestionably the Poet's grandfather. This indifference to the advantage
of making a public record of many facts, interesting at least to their
posterity, is not peculiar to this family, but deposes rather unfavourably
to the taste and judgment of the persons in whom the representation of a
family at such a time vested. It manifests also some want of a disposition
to co-operate in an important public institution, unhappily now fallen
into desuetude.
There can be no question that the heralds of old time did sometimes record
matter, even then of early date, which will not bear the test of
comparison with contemporary evidence; but of the generations then
existing, or but just passed away, they may be taken as worthy witnesses.
And fortunate are those families who have a few generations recorded in
the Heralds' books. They are saved thereby a vast amount of research into
miscellaneous papers, which, after much labour and expense, may yield data
sufficient for the construction of a genealogical system, without security
against error. The difficulty of recovering lost portions of family
history is far greater than is imagined by those who have never made the
attempt.
In the case before us, it could not be easy to ascend beyond the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, the period, emphatically, when the really ancient gentry
of the kingdom were either pushed from their pedestals, or obliged to
admit new men to share with them the honour and influence which belong to
the possession of broad lands and powerful family alliances. In the
forty-fifth year of Elizabeth, February 10, 1603, within a few weeks of
the close of her reign, a grant was made by the Crown to Lancelot Turner,
of the Manor of Towthorpe, in the county of York. He was then residing at
Towthorpe, for on the 12th of December, in that year, 1603, it was
certified by William Bainbrigg and R. Aldborough, that "Lancelot Turner,
of Towthropp, gentleman, in the wapentake of Bulmer," was for the most
part of the year preceding the taxation of the subsidy, and ever since,
residing at Towthropp with his family, and is there assessed on goods
estimated at L8.
This certificate is valuable, inasmuch as it enables us to decide which of
the two Towthorpes in the county of York is the one to which Pope's
ancestry in his mother's line is to be traced: Towthorpe, in the wapentake
of Buckrose, in the East Riding; or Towthorpe, in the wapentake of Bulmer,
in the North Riding. The Turners' Towthorpe is a few miles to the
north-east of York, near to Huntingdon, once the abode of Wilfrid Holme,
who left the curious metrical account of the Pilgrimage of Grace; and its
vicinity to York brought it within reach of the civilization of the
northern counties, of which that city was the chief seat.
It is just possible, though hardly probable, that we may ascend a
generation above this Lancelot; for, on January 20, 1626, the will of
Robert Turner, of Towthroppe, was proved in the court of the Archbishop of
York: its date does not appear. He desires to be buried in the churchyard
at Huntingdon. He gives to his son Anthony the two younger oxen, with
certain husbandry utensils; to his son Richard the red whie, which came
from Stockton; and to his grandchild, William Turner, the little brown
whie. He makes his wife and his younger son executors. There is no mention
of Lancelot, who was, however, dead; but the grandson William may be he
whom we shall soon meet, as the nephew of Lancelot, and the father of
Edith.
In all probability this Robert was an inferior member of the same family,
a small agriculturist, Lancelot being the great man of the family, whose
connection with the Popes is quite in proof. He is described as of the
city of York, in some documents of the reign of King James. On the 10th of
October, 5 James I., 1607, Robert Harrison, Lord Mayor of York, certifies
that Lancelot Turner, of the city of York, gentleman, was residing there,
and assessed on L10, goods. A like certificate was granted on the 6th of
April, in the 8th of James, 1610, signed by Henry Hall, Lord Mayor, and
William Robinson, Alderman.
The wapentake of Bulmer is, as respects minute and accurate information,
part of the _terra incognita_ of Yorkshire. Any tolerable account of the
manor of Towthorpe would have shown us something at least of the history
of the family who possessed it, and we might reasonably have expected to
find some account of the means by which this Lancelot Turner gained the
fortune with which he made this and other purchases, and appeared in the
rank and position in which we see him by the light afforded by his last
will, for we can hardly believe that all he had, came to him by descent.
Perhaps as probable a conjecture as is likely to be made is, that he was
connected with the Council of the North, or a successful practitioner in
that court.
But we go at once to his will, which is dated December 23, 1619. He
describes himself Lancelot Turner, of Towthorpe, in the county of York,
gentleman. He was then in his last sickness, for the will and a codicil
were proved on the 17th of January, 1620, and administration was granted
to the executor named therein, on the 20th. He sets out, in the laudable
practice of the time, with a profession of faith, and then proceeds to
dispose of his temporal estate. He gives, first of all, to his sister,
Margaret Stephenson, an annuity of L30, to issue out of his lordship of
Towthorpe, and also the use (interest) of L100, which, on her death, is to
go to his niece, Elisabeth Huggeson, wife of Nicholas Huggeson. Then, to
William Turner, son of his brother Philip Turner, he leaves all the manor
of Towthorpe, and lands there; and also a rent-charge of L70 a year, which
he has issuing out of the manor of Ruston. He gives L200 to his nephew,
Thomas Martin, an apprentice in London, on condition that he release
whatever claim he may have to the testator's house in Leeds; and he gives
L30 to Margaret Moor, sister of the said Thomas, and wife of William Moor,
of Beverley; and L10 to John Hustler, son of his sister Elizabeth Hustler.
We come now to an interesting bequest:--To Thomasine Newton, daughter of
Christopher Newton, late of Kilburn, gentleman, an annuity of L50 for
life, issuing out of the manor of Towthorpe, with the household stuff at
Kilburn, of which her mother is to have the use during her widowhood,
also a livery-cupboard, and a chair, plate, and the green bed. It appears
later in the will, that the plate given to her consisted of seven silver
bowls, six gilt spoons, one round white salt, and a three-corner trencher
salt, and silver porringer to each, and a silver beer-bowl. To his nephew,
John Stephenson, he gives all his books, "_except my song-books, which I
give to Thomasine Newton_."
He gives forty shillings to Mr. William Nevil, and to his "good and worthy
friend Sir William Alford, a little clock, with a bell and a larum, which
I carry about me, and one of my best horses." To the poor of Towthorpe
forty shillings. To the poor prisoners in the castle of York, L3. To the
poor prisoners in the Kidcote, on Ousebridge, in York, forty shillings.
"To the poor of the parish where I am buried, L5." To his servant,
Catherine Wetwang, L50, which is partly due to her. To Isabel Fawcet,
daughter of Mrs. Kay, wife of Mr. Thomas Kay, of York, merchant, L10. To
Robert Siddal, of York, gentleman, forty shillings. He makes his nephew,
Willam Turner, the sole executor, who is to have two years to collect his
debts. His friend Sir William Ingram, Doctor of the Civil Laws, to be
supervisor, and to determine all questions that may arise about the
interpretation of his will.
Little more than a fortnight after, namely, on Monday next after Twelfth
Day, 1620, he revoked nuncupatively the gift of the clock to Sir William
Alford, saying, "he forgets his old friends," and gives it to his nephew
William Turner. To this were witnesses Thomasine Newton, Henry Dent, and
Alice Atkinson, who depose that William Turner reminded him that there had
been much kindness between him and Sir William. This was a few days
before his death. In this codicil he is described of York, so that it was
probably made there.
This is evidently the will of a wealthy and considerable person, without
children himself, but, having made a fair provision for his sister,
establishing his nephew and heir male, William Turner, in the possession
of the bulk of his fortune, as intent to maintain the respectability of
the family and name. The particular regard he had for Thomasine Newton, is
best accounted for by supposing that her mother was a sister of the
testator; but it is also pretty evident that it was at that time
contemplated that she should become the wife of the nephew William, which
she did not long after the death of the uncle. She was the mother of the
seventeen children of William Turner, of whom Edith, the mother of Pope,
was one. The bequest to her of the song-books is remarkable, as indicating
that she manifested thus early something of the poetical temperament, if
anything more than music-books is meant. Sir William Alford was owner of
the site of the monastery of Meaux, in Holderness. Sir William Ingram was
of the family seated at Temple-Newsome; and Mr. William Nevil, an intimate
friend of the Turners, in his will, made in 1641, names a number of
persons of distinction.
But of this will a more particular account must be given, as showing in
what rank of society the parents of Edith moved, and with how much reason
the Poet might claim for her that she was, in point of _birth_, equal to
the lady (Mary Lepell), whom his adversary, Lord Hervey, had made choice
of to be the mother of his children.
April 10, 1641, William Nevil, of the city of York, Esquire, makes his
will. To be buried in the church of St. Helen. To Mrs. Elizabeth Stanhope,
the eldest daughter of Dr. Stanhope, Bishop Hall's Works. "To my funeral
expenses, L80; to Mr. William Turner, my godson, L20; and to William
Turner, his son, my godson, L10; to Mrs. Turner, his wife, L5, and to the
rest of his children L5, to be divided amongst them." To his cousin Thomas
Bourchier, L20; to Catherine Penrose the Book of Monuments, and to her
sister Elizabeth Penrose the great Bible, and L10 to each. He leaves plate
to Lady Osborne and Dame Mary Ingram, wife of Sir Arthur. To Mr. White,
St. Bernard's Works, and "what I have of St. Augustine." To Sir John
Bourchier's eldest daughter the great gilt salt, and to the second sister
a black silk gown. He had been we see the godfather in two generations of
the Turners.
The will of Lancelot Turner gives us the name of the father of William
Turner, to whom we must now proceed. It was Philip, but beyond the name I
have not discovered anything respecting him. Of Christopher Newton, the
father of Thomasine, I can only conjecture that he was the Christopher,
son of Miles Newton, of Thorpe in Claro wapentake (by Jane his wife,
daughter of Ambrose Beckwith, of Stillingflete), who was aged one year and
three months at the Visitation of 1585. Supposing this Christopher to be
Thomasine's father, which can hardly be doubted, she would be allied,
through the Beckwiths, with several of the higher Yorkshire gentry.
William Turner, son of Philip, and nephew and principal heir of Lancelot,
is styled by his grandson the Poet, "Esquire." I cannot find that he was
ever styled more than "gentleman" in his lifetime, and certainly he does
not claim to be more in his last will. He appears to have been young, at
least unmarried, in 1620, when, by the death of his uncle, he became lord
of the manor of Towthorpe, and possessed of the rent-charge on the manor
of Ruston, and of other considerable property. His birth may be fixed with
considerable probability in the year 1600 or 1601, and it could not well
be later than 1621 that he took to wife Thomasine Newton, his uncle's
favourite, for one son of that marriage was killed in the Civil Wars, and
another died in the King's service, that is, we may assume, between 1642
and 1648. It does not appear that William Turner was brought up to any
profession, or engaged in any gainful employment. The first notice we have
of him, after the date of his marriage, is only gathered inferentially
from the history of his children, viz., from the record of the baptisms of
four of them, including Edith, in the parish register of Worsborough, in
the years 1641-2-3, and 1645.
Where he had been living up to this period, from the time of his
succeeding to the family estate, is unknown to me; it might have been at
Towthorpe, or at York; but the determination of this point is not beyond
the power of a laborious search, which might bring with it the discovery
of some particulars concerning his position and character. One thing is
certain, that his wife was producing him almost yearly a son or a
daughter, as the four children whom we have mentioned were among the
latest born of his very numerous family, fourteen daughters and three
sons.
Worsborough is a village in the southern part of Yorkshire, on the road
from Sheffield to Barnsley, as the turnpike roads formerly were. It is
seated near the stream of the Dove, which flows along a dale called
Worsborough Dale, where were several homesteads, inhabited by families of
the lesser gentry, some of whom could trace themselves from remote
ancestors living in the same vicinity. The inhabitants have long been
accustomed to point out one particular house, in which they say the
mother of Pope was born. It is called Marrow House; but, whatever may be
the evidence for the claim of this particular mansion, there cannot be a
doubt that the Poet's grandfather was for some years a parishioner of
Worsborough, where we find these entries in the Register of Baptisms:--
1641, Nov. 20. Martha, daughter of Mr. William Turner.
1642, June 18. EDITH, daughter of Mr. William Turner.
1643, Sept. 1. Margaret, daughter of Mr. William Turner.
1645, Nov. 25. Jane, daughter of Mr. William Turner.
Thenceforward we lose the benefit of the testimony of the register.
It will be observed that this was while the Civil Wars were at their
height, in which two of the sons died, being on the King's side: not that
this affords us any hint or presumption respecting the circumstances which
brought Mr. Turner to Worsborough.
Whoever may have been the P. T. who communicated to Curl the particulars
before given of the history of the Poet's father and maternal grandfather,
they contain, few as they are, one specific statement which tallies with
his residence in this part of the county, far from the districts where his
estates lay. He was, says P. T., of "Burfit Hall," in Yorkshire. This can
be no other place than Birthwaite Hall, at no great distance from
Worsborough, but in the parish of Darton. It was the seat of the family of
Burdet of Birthwaite--not that of the late Sir Francis Burdett--though
Francis was a favourite name with these Yorkshire baronets. At the period
with which we are concerned, this Yorkshire family were in great straits,
and Birthwaite, in 1643, became the property of an heir of only a year and
a half old. Furthermore, their affairs were placed very much in the hands
of their relative, Mr. Rockley, of Rockley, which is in Worsborough; and
in the absence of any positive evidence, without any choice but to fall
back upon conjecture, or be silent, I would suggest that Mr. Turner's
residence in these parts of the West Riding, might arise out of some
connection with the affairs of the Rockleys and Burdets. Rockley, like
Turner, had two younger sons in the service of King Charles I.[3] At both
these houses Mr. Turner would be only a tenant.
At what time he returned to York has not been ascertained. The next thing
we know of him is that he was living there, in the parish of St. John del
Pike, at the time of the Heralds' Visitation in 1665. Next that he made
his will, describing himself "William Turner, senior, of the city of York,
gentleman." And, lastly, that in 1671, he, or his son William, was living
in the parish of St. John del Pike, in a house with seven hearths, one of
the best houses in the parish.
Here, as is usually the case in inquiries of this nature, we gain our best
information respecting him from his will, which is of considerable extent.
It is dated Sept. 4, 1665. He was then "grown weak and infirm," but still
of sound and disposing mind and memory, "humbly imploring Almighty God to
bless and prosper these my intentions and bequests." He gives his soul to
God, hoping to be saved through the merits of Jesus Christ his Saviour,
and his body to be interred with such decency and solemnity as his
executors shall approve. He then gives all interest in his messuages in
Gotheram Gate, York, to his trusty friends Thomas Thompson, of York,
notary public, and Thomas Tomlinson, of the same city, grocer, to suffer
his dear and loving wife, Thomasine Turner, to take the issues as long as
she continues his widow and unmarried ("it being her desire to have no
further interest in them than so long as she continues my widow"), and
after her death to convey them to his seven daughters:--Alice Mawhood the
wife of Richard Mawhood, Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Edith, Margaret, and
Jane Turner, equally amongst them. He then gives his manor of Ruston, with
its appurtenances in Ruston, Wickham, and Marton, and a rent-charge out of
the said manor, lands, and tithes, of L70, to his wife, so long as she
continues his widow, and afterwards to his only son, William Turner, his
heirs and assigns, subject nevertheless to the charge heretofore made to
my son-in-law Samuel Cooper and Christian his wife and their heirs, and to
the further charge that he shall, within a year after he comes into
possession, pay the sums hereafter mentioned, namely, to his loving
daughter, Thomasine Turner, L50, in full of her filial part; to Martha,
John, and William Haitfield, my grandchildren, L50 amongst them; and to
his wife L40, which is to be given by her among her seven daughters first
named in his will. He gives to the said seven daughters all his money,
plate, linen, woollen, pewter, brass, household stuff, goods, chattels,
and personal estate, of what kind soever (saving his wife's wearing
apparel, rings, and jewels), equally amongst them, for the better
augmentation of their portions; desiring and entreating his said wife's
great care for their advancement, "considering my kindness and love to her
by this my will." He further gives to his son-in-law Cooper and his wife,
and to his daughter Thomasine Turner, each twenty shillings, for rings, to
wear for his sake. He makes his wife executrix, and desires Thompson and
Tomlinson to assist her, to each of whom he gives a ring. The witnesses
were R. Etherington, James Tennant, and Edward Topham.
This will tends to confirm Pope's representation that two of his mother's
brothers died in early life. Towthorpe, we see, is not mentioned; probably
it had passed from the family: but, on the other hand, there seems to have
been some addition made to what Lancelot the uncle had possessed at
Ruston. This Ruston (for there are two Rustons as well as two Towthorpes
in Yorkshire) is near Scarborough, and Brompton, the ancient seat of the
Cayley family, as this will plainly shows, by mentioning as appurtenances,
Wickham and Marton, in the same neighbourhood. We have already seen that
an interest was possessed here, in 1710, by Alexander Pope, the London
merchant, and his son, who seem to have intended to sell it to the Vanden
Bempd family.[4] It was a valuable property; but we cannot but perceive,
when we compare this will with that of Lancelot Turner, that the
prosperity of the family had meanwhile declined.
Pope speaks rather magniloquently of the cause of the decline, telling us
that "his mother inherited what estate remained after the sequestrations
and forfeitures of her family." We are bound to accept this statement;
but, in the printed list of compounders, the name of this Mr. Turner does
not appear, and I have seen no evidence of any sequestration. In comparing
the wills of Lancelot and William, we must not forget that Lancelot's was
made at the close of a life passed without children, and William's after
he had portioned some of his fourteen daughters, and had others still
remaining in his house.
These children of his grandfather were the only relatives of Pope in the
preceding generation with whom he appears to have kept up much
acquaintance; and after he became distinguished in the world, no
particular intimacy existed between him and them. We must except, however,
his mother, for whom he entertained the highest respect and affection; and
who, he says, had lived with him from the time of his birth, to her death
at the age of ninety-three. She survived, as we may easily believe, all
her brothers and sisters; and of these it now remains to give such an
account as the few memorials of them which have fallen under my notice
enable me. They are in no respect interesting except as they are
connected with the life of Pope, whom it is no exaggeration to designate
one of the greatest names among Englishmen, standing, in his own
department, with Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden,--men
of whom, and whose connections, men now desire to know all that can be
known.
Of the two Turners, who died in the service of King Charles I., we have no
account even of their names. The other son, named William, left England to
serve in the Spanish army, which was also the course taken by one of the
young Rockleys of Worsborough, his "coetanean," and probably his friend.
He rose in that service to be what Pope calls "a general officer"; which
distinction, if it gave him rank like that of a general in the English
service, was one that, in such a controversy, Pope was undoubtedly
entitled to put forward as an honour to the family. I lament that more has
not been discovered concerning him, and more particularly that we have not
even that slender piece of autobiography, his will. We know, however, that
he retained to the time of his death some portion of the family property,
and left it to his sister, Edith Pope, perhaps then the sole survivor.
Of the fourteen daughters, it would seem that some may have died in
infancy or in very early life. The General used to speak of his _ten_
sisters, and to compare them with the five wise and five foolish virgins,
that is, five Roman Catholics, and five of the English Protestant Church;
but which, in his opinion, were the wise, and which the foolish, does not
appear in the family tradition preserved by John Charles Brooke, Somerset
Herald, who was descended of one of them.
To place them in the exact order of seniority is out of our power, though
a more thorough search in the Yorkshire parish registers might enable us
to do so.
All we can pretend to is to place them in an order approximate to the
truth; and I need not apprise the reader that where we have to deal with
so large a family, there must be a long interval between the elder and the
younger. At the birth of Pope, in 1688, his mother was forty-six, and some
of his aunts must have been sixty, or thereabouts.
CHRISTIANA is named in her father's will as the wife of Samuel Cooper. She
may be presumed to have been one of the elder daughters, her husband
having been born in 1609. He was the famous miniature-painter of the name,
and was also noted for his skill in music. His father was a professed
musician, as we are informed by Aubrey, in his _Natural History of
Wiltshire_. His science may possibly have introduced him to the family of
Thomasine Turner, to whom, as we have seen, some song-books were
bequeathed by her uncle. Walpole knew of Cooper's marriage, and tells us
that he lived long in France and Holland; also, that he died in London, on
May 5, 1672, at the age of sixty-three, and was buried in St. Pancras
Church. All this may be true; but when he says--"I have a drawing of
Pope's father as he lay dead in his bed, by his brother-in-law, Cooper,
which had belonged to Mr. Pope," he must be mistaken, as Pope's father
outlived Cooper many years. More probably it was of Pope's grandfather,
and Cooper's father-in-law, William Turner. Walpole further informs us
that the widow of Cooper received a pension from the Court of France, for
whom her husband painted several pieces on a larger scale than he usually
adopted.
Mrs. Cooper survived her husband many years. We are indebted to Mr.
Carruthers for notes of her will, which was made on the 16th of May, 1693,
and proved on the 28th of August following. She desires to be decently
buried in the Church of St. Pancras, as near to her dear husband as may
be. She leaves legacies to her sisters, Elizabeth Turner, Alice Mawhood,
and Mary Turner; also to her sisters Mace (not Marc, as printed by Mr.
Carruthers) and Jane Smith. To her sister Pope she leaves her mother's
picture,--(what has become of this?)--a broad piece of gold to her
brothers Mace, Calvert, Pope, and Smith; to her nephew and godson,
Alexander Pope (then five years old), a china dish with a silver foot, and
instruments which had been used by her husband in his art; and, after the
death of her sister, Elizabeth Turner, all her books, pictures, and
medals. She makes her nephew, Samuel Mawhood, citizen and fishmonger, her
sole executor.
It appears that there is or was a monument in the Church of St. Pancras to
the memory of the Coopers, with arms of Cooper impaling those usually
assigned to the name of Turner.
Mrs. Cooper was one of the five Roman Catholics. It seems probable, though
Walpole does not state it, that Cooper was originally a musician by
profession, as his father was, who is better known by his Italianized name
Coporario.
THOMASINE, named in her father's will, seems to have left the paternal
mansion early; for I find a Thomasine Turner living at the west end of
Turnmill Street in 1645, when she was assessed one shilling towards the
support of Sir Thomas Fairfax's army. In 1642, a receipt had been given to
the same person for three shillings assessed upon her for the tenements
she holds of Thomas Stokes, gentleman, in the parish of Clerkenwell, for
the subsidy of L400,000; and in another receipt for a very small sum to
the same subsidy. It is incidentally noticed on this receipt, that Thomas
Stokes was a Papist. It is hardly likely that there should be two
Thomasine Turners, unmarried, living at the same time. She seems never to
have married, and subscribes her maiden name as a witness to Mr. Cooper's
will. I place her among the five Roman Catholic sisters.
ALICE is mentioned in her father's will as the wife of Richard Mawhood.
She was one of the elder children, as she was eighty-eight at the time of
her death, January 15, 1713/4, and consequently born in 1625. Her husband
resided at Ardsley, where he had a good estate, which place being near to
Worsborough, we are at no loss to account for the connection thus formed,
and may refer it to the period when the family were living at Marrow
House, especially as we find that the eldest son, William Mawhood, who
succeeded them at Ardsley, was born in 1647, being seventy-eight at the
time of his death in 1725; many persons descend from him. But, beside the
eldest son, there were eight other children, of whom Samuel, a
woollen-draper on Snow Hill, was Mrs. Cooper's executor. One only of these
children was a daughter, who lived to the age of eighty-four, dying in
1736, the widow of Thomas Brooke of Doncaster. There was another
connection of the Mawhoods with the family of Brooke of Yorkshire, William
Brooke of Dodworth having married Alice, daughter of William Mawhood, an
alderman of Doncaster (grandson of Richard Mawhood and Alice Turner) by
Margaret Mawhood his wife, daughter of William, the eldest son of Richard
and Alice. A son of that marriage was John Charles Brooke, the Somerset
Herald, a most laborious inquirer into points of genealogy, who has left a
large account of his relations, the Mawhoods, from which more might be
extracted were I not, perhaps, too sensible how wearisome genealogical
details are to many readers. His inquiries about his ancestors the Turners
were less successful. He knew the relationship to Pope, but substitutes
for William Turner of York, his contemporary, William Turner of Bilham,
near Doncaster, a person of the same rank, but of a totally different
family. Mrs. Mawhood may be considered to have remained a Protestant.
ANOTHER DAUGHTER, who must have been among those early born of this
prolific bed, seems to have died before her father, who names in his will,
Martha, John, and William Haitfield, as his grandchildren.
EDITH, baptized in 1642, is spoken of in her father's will by her maiden
name,--in her sister, Mrs. Cooper's will, in 1693, as then the wife of
Pope the elder. She died in 1733, the last survivor of the family.
JANE, baptized in 1645, married ---- Smith. Both were living when Mrs.
Cooper made her will in 1693.
ELIZABETH, is named in her father's will, 1665, and her sister Cooper's
will, 1693, as unmarried.
MARTHA, baptized 1641, and named in her father's will. Either she or (less
probably) her sister Margaret was the wife of ---- Calvert, who was living
in 1693, according to Mrs. Cooper's will. J. C. Brooke says that she was
maintained in her old age by her nephew, Captain Charles Mawhood, who
resided at Alkley, near Doncaster. She was a Roman Catholic.
MARGARET, baptized 1643. She (or Martha) married a clergyman named Mace.
There were several clergymen of that rare name living at York and in the
northern part of Derbyshire. She is named in her father's will, and, with
her husband, in her sister Cooper's.
Ten daughters have now been presented before us; but Brooke, who professes
to write from the information of the elders of the family, speaks of two
others, viz., Mrs. Tomlinson, whom we may suppose to have married in the
family of Tomlinson of York, one of the supervisors of Turner's will; and
Mrs. Corbet, who he says was one of the five Roman Catholics. She was, I
conceive, the Mrs. Corbet on whom Pope wrote what pleased Dr. Johnson most
of all his epitaphs.
One of the unmarried daughters, Thomasine, Elizabeth, or Mary, must have
been the deformed sister who lived with Mrs. Pope, and who taught her son
to read, according to the popular accounts of the Poet.
We have thus accounted for twelve of the fourteen daughters. The remaining
two we may well believe died in infancy or early youth.
Whatever excellent qualities Edith may have possessed, it would seem that
her literary education was not much superior to that of other young ladies
of her time, and inferior to that of many. This is proved by a letter of
hers, the only one I believe that is known, printed in the _Additions to
the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq._, 1776, vol. ii. p. 96.[5]
The people of York seem not to have been without a due sense of the honour
done to their city in having had the mother of so great a man residing
among them in her youth. In some verses addressed to Lady Irwin, a
daughter of the Earl of Carlisle, these lines occur:--
York lent us Pope by th' mother's side:
But from th' paternal, this our pride
Gives Castle Howard: say which here
Illumines most the natal sphere.
* * * * *
On the whole, then, it will appear that Pope descended of a _clerical_
family, the members of it being much connected with the University of
Oxford; but that at present we can trace him only to a person of his own
name, who was rector of Thruxton and prebendary (if the incumbents are so
called) of Middleton and Ichen-Abbots, in the diocese of Winchester: that
these, being rather conspicuous pieces of preferment, place him in the
higher rank of the clergy of his time, and seem to be but the beginning of
the offices he would have held in the Church, had he not died in rather
early life, and had not the changes at that time imminent, stopped him in
his course:--that, though we cannot ascend beyond him on evidence that
would bear a close examination, there is strong presumptive evidence that
he was either identical or nearly connected with an Alexander Pope of
Oxford, the friend of Dr. Barcroft, and the son-in-law of the famous John
Dodd of Fawsley, and the father of Dr. Walter Pope, the Gresham Professor,
the Poet, and the miscellaneous writer, who was half-brother of Dr. John
Wilkins, the Bishop of Chester, who married a sister of the Protector
Cromwell:--that there is no reason to believe, on account of disparity of
rank, that he was not of the same stock as the Popes, Earls of Downe, but,
on the contrary, that nothing can be more probable than that the family
tradition was correct, which delivered thus much and no more:--that his
Oxfordshire ancestors did spring, as the Earl of Downe did, from people of
small account living at Deddington, near Banbury.
And that, on his mother's side, he sprang from persons who had possessed
land of their own at Towthorpe, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, from
perhaps an early period, but who, from the time of Elizabeth were lords of
the manor:--that one of them who died in the reign of James I. was an
opulent person, and intimate with some of the principal families in the
county:--that he left the greater part of his possessions to his nephew,
William Turner, the Poet's grandfather:--that in his hands the family
estate did not receive any material additions, and perhaps rather
decayed:--that he had the charge of not fewer than seventeen children,
nearly all of whom grew to man and woman's estate:--that of the sons, two
died during the Civil Wars, in which one of them was slain, and the other
went abroad and served in the Spanish army, and at his death gave
property, not very inconsiderable remains of the family estate, to Edith
Pope, his favourite sister.
And that, this being the case, there is nothing of exaggeration or of
boasting, when the Poet has to meet the charge of being of obscure birth,
in asserting that he sprang "of gentle blood."
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