My dear Sir,
In that section of the interesting and valuable tract you have recently
given to the world, which treats of the maternal ancestry of Pope, you
suggest the possibility of "ascending a generation above" Lancelot Turner,
the uncle of William Turner, the Poet's maternal grandfather.
Having had the good fortune to discover this higher step in the genealogy
of the Turners, and to obtain some additional information respecting
several members of the family, I beg to be permitted to communicate to
you, in this form, the facts which have come to my knowledge.
The descent of the maternal ancestors of the illustrious Poet may be
traced to a source whence many families among the present aristocracy of
Yorkshire have originally sprung,--the trade or commerce of the city of
York.
At York, in the reign of King Henry VIII., Robert Turner carried on the
business of a wax-chandler, which, before the Reformation, when this
commodity in various forms was profusely and constantly used in the
celebration of religious services, was a lucrative and important
occupation. Had he not been a person in good circumstances, and belonging
to the higher class of tradesmen, he would scarcely have brought up his
son to one of the learned professions. In the year 1553, "Edward Turner,
skryvener," son of Robert Turner, wax-chandler, being entitled by
patrimony to be admitted to the city franchise, was duly enrolled upon the
register of York freemen.
This Edward Turner was the father of Lancelot Turner; and what you have
hazarded as a probable conjecture with regard to the son,[6] is quite true
as regards the father: he was connected with the Council of the North; and
there can be no doubt that great part of the property he possessed at the
time of his death had been acquired by the influence and emoluments which
arose from his official connection with that court.
We have decisive evidence of his having been one of the officials of the
Council of the North in a circumstance which is recorded upon the minutes
of the proceedings of the corporation of York. Being a freeman of the
city, Edward Turner was liable to serve municipal offices; and it may be
regarded as a proof of the estimation in which he was held by his
fellow-citizens, that they thought him a proper person to sustain the
dignity and responsibility of the office of sheriff of the city. In
October, 1562, he received an intimation from the corporate body, that
they intended to elect him to be one of their sheriffs for the ensuing
year. When this was made known to the Lord President and Council of the
North, Mr. Secretary Eymis "went in all haste" to the common hall where
the corporation were assembled, and told them that "Edward Turner was a
clerk to the Council, and they must not make him sheriff."
The citizens did not deem it expedient to act in opposition to the wishes
of the Council thus peremptorily expressed. They abandoned their design
of electing Mr. Turner sheriff, and he was never afterwards called upon
to bear that or any other office in the corporation.[7] It was of more
importance to him to retain the favour of the Council, than to accept a
municipal appointment which was attended with no profit, and might have
interfered with the due discharge of his official or professional duties.
The Mr. Secretary Eymis who is here spoken of, was Thomas Eymis, Esq., one
of the chief functionaries of the great Court of York for nearly thirty
years. A gentleman by birth, and, doubtless, a lawyer by profession, he
was first constituted a member of the Council of the North, and appointed
to the important office of its secretary, by the commission under which
the Earl of Shrewsbury was made Lord President in the 4th year of King
Edward VI. After the accession of Queen Elizabeth, under the commission
which appointed the Earl of Rutland Lord President, and under the
subsequent commissions issued in that reign, he continued to hold the
office of Secretary, and was also Keeper of the Queen's Signet.
From the alarm shown by Mr. Secretary Eymis when he heard that the
efficiency of Edward Turner's services as clerk to the Council was in
danger of being impaired by his advancement to civic honours, it seems
probable that the appointment he held was that of one of the clerks of the
seal,[8] the duties of which would be more immediately under Mr. Eymis's
superintendence. It is obvious, however, that the office, whatever name it
bore, was of great respectability, and placed the holder of it upon a
footing of friendly intercourse with numerous persons of family and
distinction, members of or connected with the Council, who at that period
constituted the highest class of society in York.
Edward Turner's place of residence was in the centre of the city. The
house in which he lived and died, stood in that part of the parish of
Saint Helen Stonegate, which was then called Stayngate, but is now known
as Saint Helen's Square. This and an adjoining mansion occupied by Lady
Beckwith (the widow of Sir Leonard Beckwith, Knight, one of the Council of
the North), and several other houses situate in the adjacent streets, were
his property. Some of them he had most probably inherited from his
father.
In the year 1562, when the corporation of York contemplated making him
sheriff, Edward Turner was a married man, and the father of a family. The
earliest register book of the parish of Saint Helen Stonegate, which
commences in the year 1568, records the baptism of two of his younger
children: "Lucy Turner, daughter of Edward Turner, gentleman," was
baptized on the 24th of February, 1569, and a son, named Edward, on the
12th of August, 1570. Another son, named Martin, of whom he speaks in his
will as his youngest son, must have been born a very short time before the
death of his mother, an event which is thus entered in the same
register:--"Mistris Turner, wife of Edward Turner, gentleman, buried 13th
June, 1571." I have found no clue whatever to the discovery of the name of
this lady, or of any other particulars relating to her.
A few months after the usual period of mourning had passed, the widowed
husband took unto himself a second wife. On the 22nd of September, 1572,
"Mr. Edward Turner and Mrs. Jane Fale" were married at the church of the
parish of Saint Michael le Belfrey, in York. Mrs. Jane Fale was the widow
of Mr. Thomas Fale, who for more than twenty years was town-clerk of York,
and died in the month of March, 1571.
In the year 1573, Mr. Turner purchased of William Wentworth, of
Killingwicke, a plot of ground near to his own residence, which had been
the churchyard of the demolished church of Saint Wilfred.[9]
Of thirty householders of the parish of Saint Helen Stonegate, who, in the
year 1574, were assessed to the relief of the poor, Edward Turner paid the
highest rate. The amount, when compared with modern experience, seems
ridiculously small: it was no more than fourpence. But this was in the
very infancy of poor-rates, and, with one or two exceptions, the aldermen
of the city were the only persons who contributed so large a sum as
sixpence.
A few years later, Mr. Turner had to lament the loss of his early friend
and patron, Mr. Secretary Eymis. He died on the 19th of August, 1578; and
in his last will we find a token, although it be but a slight one, of his
regard for the person who had so long shared his official labours.
During his long tenure of the influential and lucrative office of
Secretary to the Court at York, Mr. Eymis had accumulated great wealth. He
appears to have participated largely in the distribution by the crown of
the ecclesiastical property in Yorkshire which was confiscated at the
Reformation. His estate at Heslington, near York, where he built for his
own residence a stately mansion, consisted chiefly of lands which had
belonged to the Hospital of Saint Leonard and the Priory of Saint Andrew,
two of the religious houses at York. He had possessed himself of the
estates belonging to a collegiate foundation at Lowthorpe in the East
Riding. He was lessee under the church of York of the prebend of Bugthorpe
in the same riding, and owner of the manors of Bugthorpe and other
adjacent places; and he had obtained a grant from the crown of the tithes
of Clifton, near York, which belonged to the rectory of Saint Olave in
Marygate. He must have been remarkable for the state and splendour of his
domestic establishment, having a house in the Minster Close at York, and
another in the Savoy at London; and two country houses, one at Bugthorpe,
and the other at Heslington.[10]
The last will of Mr. Eymis was executed on the first day of the year in
which he died. In this document the name of Edward Turner occurs twice:
first, in his disposal of a house and close of land, without Monk Bar,
York, which he states that he had purchased of "Edward Turner, gentilman";
and secondly, in a bequest of which I must speak more at length. The
testator gives a life interest in nearly the whole of his estates to his
wife Elizabeth; but he does this by means of numerous separate devises,
intailing the various parts of his property, after her death, upon his
nephews, Thomas Eymis, William Eymis, Richard Eymis, John Eymis, William
Thynne, and Sir John Thynne, Knight,[11] varying the order of succession,
and introducing into some of the limitations the names of the younger sons
of his nephew, Sir John Thynne, and his brother-in-law, Sir Henry Neville,
Knight, and of two or three other persons, of whom Edward Turner is one.
The tithes of Clifton, which the testator states that he held for a term
of years by a grant from the Queen, he gives, after the death of his wife,
to five of his nephews for their lives successively; and if they all die
before the expiration of such term of years, he bequeaths the same tithes
to "Edward Turner, gentilman, and his assigns, during the residue of the
years then to come, if he live so long;" and if not, then "to my friend
Robert Man, gentilman," in a similar manner, with the ultimate bequest to
"Henry Pulleyne, my servant." The will was proved at York, on the 20th of
March, 1578-9, by the testator's widow, Elizabeth Eymis, the residuary
legatee and sole executor.[12]
Mr. Edward Turner did not long survive his patron and superior in office,
Mr. Secretary Eymis. He died in the month of December, 1580, and was
buried in the church of the parish of Saint Helen Stonegate, of which he
had been for many years one of the principal inhabitants. A few weeks
before his death he executed his last will. It is dated the 27th of
November, 1580, and was proved by Lancelot Turner, the eldest son and one
of the executors, on the 31st of January, 1581. After the usual pious
introduction, the testator, who describes himself "Edward Turner, of the
cittie of Yorke," without any addition, gives to his wife, Jane, for her
life, all such lands, &c., as she had already set forth for her jointure.
He then proceeds to make the following disposition of his real estate:--
"To Lancelot Turner, my son, all my lands in possession and reversion,
except a tenement and garthinge in Stanegate, to him and his heirs males;
with remainder to Phillippe Turner, my son, and his heirs males; with
remainder to Thomas Turner, my son, and his heirs males; with remainder to
Martyn Turner, my son, and his heirs males; with remainder to my own right
heirs."
The following bequests show that the testator's personalty was of a costly
description:--
"To my son, Lancelot Turner, my dolphyn of gold; to my wife, all such gold
rings and gold tablets as she hath in possession; to Phillipp Turner, my
son, my ring hoop of gold; to Thomas Turner, a ring of gold, with a graven
death's head in it, weighing about 40_s._; to Martyn Turner, a gold ring,
with a death's head of stone in it; to Margaret Willowbie, a round gold
ring of 12_s._ price, which lieth in my study amongst other my rings; to
Elizabeth Martyn, a gold ring in a purse, in my far study; to Katherine
Turner, a ring of an angel weight; to Margaret Willowbie, 100 marks in
consideration of such reckoning as is between her and me; to Elizabeth
Martin, L10 over and beside L6. 13_s._ 4_d._ which I owe of the 100 marks
that I promised to her husband for her marriage goods; to Katherine
Turner, L30 over and besides her child's portion; to Johan Willowbie,
40_s._, and to Anne, Elizabeth, and Thomas Willowbie, 20_s._ each; to my
wife, the tithes of corn and hay at Bishopthorpe during her life; to
Martyn Turner, my youngest son, twenty marks yearly, out of the annuity of
L20 granted unto me from William Chamberlayne, Esq., and Leonard his
son,[13] for his bringing up at the University, and I commit him to the
tuition of my wife, to be ruled and ordered by her, who I trust will be
his good mother, and see all his things ordered for his most benefit; to
my son, Lancelot, my years in the tithe of Braken-on-the-Wold, by grant
from the Queen's Majesty; to Thomas Turner, the tenement and garthing in
Stanegate; to my son, Philip Turner, my years in my lands in Clifton which
I have by grant from the Queen, and my right in the Howe close without
Walmgate Bar; to my well-beloved cousin, Mr. Henry Maye, the moiety of my
leasehold lands in Kexbie township, for that he in truth did disburse the
one half of the money for the obtaining of the leases--the other moiety I
give to my children, Edward, Martyn, and Katherine Turner; to my daughter,
Margaret Willowbie, my years in a close in Scoreby, paying out of it to my
sister, Alice Hall, widow, 40_s._ yearly; to Lancelot Martin, my
son-in-law, a gold ring of the value of 40_s._ I will that all the
'waynescott, sealings, portalles, binkes, cundetts for conveying of
water,' &c. in my now dwelling-house, and within the house of the Lady
Beckwith, be heirlooms. To my wife, a stoke of corn which I estimate to be
twenty quarters of barley; L30 from one Hunter, for the fine or gressam of
a tenement and lands of my said wife in Tockwith; and a grey ambling nag
which she useth to ride upon, and calleth her own nag, which I esteem at
the value of L4. To the right worshipful and my singular good mistress,
Mrs. Eymis,[14] one old ryal; to my good friend Mr. Thomas Sandes, my
cousin Henry Maye, and his wife, an old angel each; to my cousin Thomas
Jackson, and my niece Jane Crosethwaite, each a French crown; to each of
the children of my late brother-in-law, John Hall, 5_s._; to Edmund Fale
and his wife, 5_s._ each; to Mrs. Maltus, an English crown; to Mrs. Wood,
of Kilnwick, a gold ring, or two old angels; to Agnes Walker, of Saint
Nicholas, 3_s._ 4_d._ The residue to my wife, and Lancelot Turner,
Margaret Willowbie, and Elizabeth Martin, my children, whom I make
executors; my very good friend, Mr. Thomas Wood of Kilnwicke,[15] Robert
Man, Thomas Blenkharne, John Stephenson, and Thomas Smithson,
supervisors."
It does not appear that the testator's wife, who survived him, had borne
him any children. By the aid of his will the issue of his previous
marriage may be placed in the following order:--
1. LANCELOT, the eldest son. For copious information respecting him,
we are indebted to your researches.