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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.

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 ?8.

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.

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 ?30, to issue out of his lordship of Towthorpe, and also the use of ?100, 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 ?70 a year, which he has issuing out of the manor of Ruston. He gives ?200 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 ?30 to Margaret Moor, sister of the said Thomas, and wife of William Moor, of Beverley; and ?10 to John Hustler, son of his sister Elizabeth Hustler.

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, ?3. To the poor prisoners in the Kidcote, on Ousebridge, in York, forty shillings. "To the poor of the parish where I am buried, ?5." To his servant, Catherine Wetwang, ?50, which is partly due to her. To Isabel Fawcet, daughter of Mrs. Kay, wife of Mr. Thomas Kay, of York, merchant, ?10. 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.

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, ?80; to Mr. William Turner, my godson, ?20; and to William Turner, his son, my godson, ?10; to Mrs. Turner, his wife, ?5, and to the rest of his children ?5, to be divided amongst them." To his cousin Thomas Bourchier, ?20; to Catherine Penrose the Book of Monuments, and to her sister Elizabeth Penrose the great Bible, and ?10 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 , 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:--

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.

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 , 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 ?70, 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, ?50, in full of her filial part; to Martha, John, and William Haitfield, my grandchildren, ?50 amongst them; and to his wife ?40, 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 , 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 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. 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.

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.

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 ?400,000; 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 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.

ELIZABETH, is named in her father's will, 1665, and her sister Cooper's will, 1693, as unmarried.

MARGARET, baptized 1643. She 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.

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.

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."

LONDON; F. PICKTON, Printer, Perry's Place, 29, Oxford Street.

"WHO WROTE CAVENDISH'S LIFE OF WOLSEY?" 4to. 1814.

HALLAMSHIRE.--The History and Topography of the Town and Parish of Sheffield; with Historical and Descriptive Notices of the Parishes of Hansworth, Treeton, Whiston, and Ecclesfield. Folio. 1819.

GOLDEN SENTENCES.--A Manual for the use of all who desire to live Virtuously and Religiously. 8vo. 1827.

SOUTH YORKSHIRE.--The History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster, in the Diocese and County of York. Folio, 2 vols. 1828 and 1831.

THE HALLAMSHIRE GLOSSARY. 12mo. 1829.

THE LIFE OF THOMAS GENT, Printer, of York; from his own Autograph. 8vo. 1832.

AN HISTORICAL DEFENCE of the Trustees of Lady Hewley's Foundations, and of the Claims upon them of the Presbyterian Ministry of England. 8vo. 1834.

A TRUE ACCOUNT of the Alienation and Recovery of the Estates of the Offleys of Norton, in 1754. 12mo. 1841.

A LETTER TO PATRICK FRASER TYTLER, ESQ., on the Evidence lately given by him before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, on a Plan of Publication applicable to the National Records. 8vo. 1837.

THREE CATALOGUES: Describing the Contents of the Red Book of the Exchequer, of the Dodsworth Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, and of the Manuscripts in the Library of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. 8vo. 1838.

A DISQUISITION on the Scene, Origin, Date, &c. of Shakespeare's Tempest; in a Letter to Benjamin Heywood Bright, Esq. 8vo. 1839.

THE RISE OF THE OLD DISSENT: Exemplified in the Life of Oliver Heywood, one of the Founders of the Presbyterian Congregations in the County of York, 1630-1702. 8vo. 1842.

THE CONNECTION OF BATH with the Literature and Science of England. 12mo, 1827; and enlarged, 1853.

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