Chapter II: The Turners (1)

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."

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

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._

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POPE: ADDITIONAL FACTS CONCERNING HIS MATERNAL ANCESTRY.

BY ROBERT DAVIES, F.S.A.,

IN A LETTER TO MR. HUNTER, AUTHOR OF THE TRACT ENTITLED "POPE:
HIS DESCENT AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS."

It is one of the most pleasing offices of the genealogist to trace
the descent and to show the alliances of GENIUS.

HUNTER'S _South Yorkshire_, vol. ii. p. 297.

LONDON:
JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,
36, SOHO SQUARE.
M.DCCC.LVIII.

"Let any one bethink him how impressive the smallest historical fact may become, as contrasted with the grandest fictitious event;--what an incalculable force lies for us in this consideration;--the thing which I here hold imaged in my mind did actually occur; was, in very truth, an element in the system of the All whereof I too form part; had therefore, and has, through all time, an authentic being; is not a dream, but a reality!"--CARLYLE'S _Essays_, vol. iii. p. 43.

POPE.

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:--