Pope: His Descent And Family Connections Part 5

In the spring of 1604, that dreadful scourge, the "Pestilence of the Plague," which, in the preceding year, had almost desolated the metropolis, made its appearance at York, and continued to rage with unabated violence in every part of the city for several months.[24] Edith, the wife of Philip Turner, and three of his children, were victims of this fatal visitation. The mother died first: the register of All Saints Pavement records her burial on July 9, 1604. The death of her daughters, Martha and Katherine, quickly followed. Both were buried on the 23rd of the same month. John, her infant son, did not long survive his mother; he was buried on the 19th of December.

After this period I have not met with the slightest trace of Philip Turner, or of any of his surviving children, except William, who, we now discover, was not his first-born son. From the christian-name given to Philip's eldest boy, it is pretty certain that he was the G.o.dson of his uncle Lancelot, and had he lived to the age of maturity would have been preferred to his younger brother. We must conclude, therefore, that his early death made way for William to become the oldest surviving son of his father, and the heir presumptive of his uncle, who, as we learn from your pages,[25] having no children of his own, ultimately by his will established this nephew in the possession of the bulk of his fortune.

It was but a short time previous to the occurrence of the calamity which deprived Philip Turner of his wife and three of his children, that Lancelot Turner became the owner of Towthorpe.

An acute critic,[26] who has taken great interest in all matters connected with the genealogy of Pope, suggests, as "more than probable, that Lancelot Turner himself acquired the property which enabled him to make the purchase of the manor of Towthorpe." But the fact seems to be, that he had obtained the means of making that purchase by converting into money part of the property bequeathed to him by his father, in the sale of which he had prevailed upon his brother Philip to join. Prior to the year 1602,[27] they had sold to Robert Watterhouse, Esq., the ancient churchyard of Saint Wilfred, and the buildings that stood upon it; and in January, 1604, "Lancelot Turner and Philip Turner of York gentlemen, sons of Edward Turner late of York gentleman, deceased," conveyed to John Smith and John Sharpe, two York tradesmen, all the remaining property which had belonged to their father, situate in the parish of Saint Helen Stonegate, consisting of nine dwelling-houses which stood in the several streets of Stanegate, Ald-Conyng-strete, Blake-street, and Davygate.

About this time Lancelot Turner was making purchases of copyhold cottages and land at Towthorpe; and from his having sold his paternal property in York, to enable him to become the lord of the manor of Towthorpe, and from his manifest desire to enlarge the borders of his domain there, it might be reasonably inferred that he had some ancestral attachment to that place. There can be no doubt that a family of the same name, who were small landed proprietors, had long been settled there. The baptism of John, son of the Robert Turner, of Towthorpe, of whose will you give some account,[28] is entered in the parochial register of Huntington, on Jan.

11, 1600-1. Robert, the testator, was buried at Huntington on Sept. 30, 1626. In April, 1642, Richard Turner, doubtless the son and executor of Robert, surrendered copyhold land at Strensall, the manor to which Towthorpe is appendant, to William Turner, doubtless his son, and the grandchild to whom Robert bequeaths "the little brown whie."

Nothing can be more probable than that Robert of York, the father of Edward and the grandfather of Lancelot, sprang from this respectable if not opulent family of Turner of Towthorpe, and, according to a practice very common in those days, had been transplanted from the country to be brought up to a trade in the town.

I have now to bring to your notice a remarkable circ.u.mstance which occurred in the earlier part of the life of Lancelot Turner.

You need not be reminded of the bitter persecution of Nonconformists that prevailed in the northern counties whilst the Court of York was under the presidency of the Earl of Huntingdon; and the strict watchfulness which the civil authorities were specially required by the Government to exercise over all persons suspected of any attachment to Popery. At the commencement of the year 1594, the magistrates of York were called upon by the Lord President and Council of the North, acting in obedience to instructions received from the Privy Council, to make diligent inquiry as to the number of gentlemen resident within their jurisdiction who were sending, or had sent, their children abroad under colour of learning languages. In the answer which the Lord Mayor and Aldermen returned to the communication from the Lord President, they certified that Martin Turner, son of Edward Turner of York gentleman deceased, went over the seas about three years before--that he was then at Venice at the University, and learning of languages there--and that he was relieved and maintained by one Lancelot Turner of York gentleman, his brother.[29]

The curious facts thus disclosed appear to me to admit of only one explanation. We discover that in the year 1591, about twelve months after the death of Mrs. Jane Turner, his father's widow, Lancelot Turner took the extraordinary step of sending his brother, a youth of nineteen, into Italy. We have seen the desire of the father, as shown by the testamentary provision he made for his son Martin, whom he probably designed for one of the liberal professions, that this his youngest boy should be brought up at the university. His solemn injunction to his widow, that she should be "a good mother to the boy and see all things ordered for his most benefit," was, no doubt, piously fulfilled. We cannot imagine, that when Edward Turner, an officer of the Council of the North, spoke of the university, he had the most remote idea of his son being brought up at a Popish college. Yet we find that Lancelot Turner, the moment he became the youth's natural guardian, sent him abroad, and placed him at the University of Venice, which was then notorious for being the very centre and hotbed of Jesuitism.[30]

The conclusion seems inevitable, that Lancelot Turner was himself a Roman Catholic, and adopted the most effectual method of having his brother Martin educated and established in the same faith.

Nevertheless, we have some evidence that at a later period he outwardly conformed to the religion of the State. One of the important facts you have brought to light concerning him is, that the royal grant of Towthorpe was made to him just before the Queen's death. Had he then been an avowed Roman Catholic, or even suspected of recusancy, he would scarcely have obtained such a grant from the Government of Elizabeth. The doc.u.ments you refer to, showing his residence at York after the accession of James I., testify that he then stood well with the munic.i.p.al authorities. I may add, by way of corroboration, that in January, 1612, when the royal treasury was empty, and the Ministers of James resorted to the expedient of raising money for the necessities of the State, by sending privy seals into the country, Lancelot Turner was one of "twenty able commoners" of York, whom the Lord President and the Lord Mayor, upon private conference, selected as persons of sufficient ability to lend money to the Crown upon that security.

The touching incident recorded in the nuncupative codicil made by Lancelot Turner in his dying moments,[31] shows the close personal friends.h.i.+p which must have subsisted between him and Sir William Alford; and this gives plausibility to a conjecture, that their families were connected by some tie of relations.h.i.+p: possibly the first wife of Edward Turner was an Alford. The christian name of Lancelot, which Edward Turner bestowed upon his eldest son, and which was afterwards given to his eldest grandson, had been a favourite name with the Alfords. The first occupier of Meaux Abbey, after the dissolution of monasteries, was Lancelot Alford, Esq., who died in 1562, and was succeeded by his nephew, Sir Lancelot Alford, who obtained a grant of the site of the monastery in 1586, and was knighted by King James I., at York, in 1603.[32] He was the father of Sir William Alford, Lancelot Turner's friend. But another and perhaps the more probable conjecture is, that the intimacy between these two persons had arisen from a community of feeling upon the all-important subject of religious faith; for there can be little doubt that Sir William Alford was a Roman Catholic.

In a pet.i.tion presented by the House of Commons to King Charles the First, in the year 1626, numerous persons are named, holding places of trust and authority, whom the pet.i.tioners accuse of being either Popish recusants, or justly suspected of being such. They do not scruple to charge the Lord President of the North himself[33] with being ill affected in religion; and, among other instances, they allege--first, that in the preceding year, the Lord President being certified of divers Spanish s.h.i.+ps-of-war upon the coast of Scarborough, his lords.h.i.+p went thither, and took with him the Lord Dunbar, Sir Thomas Metham, and Sir William Alford, and lay at the house of Lord Eure,[34] whom he knew to be a convict recusant, and did, notwithstanding, refuse to disarm him, although he had received letters from the Privy Council to that effect; and secondly, that he gave order to Lord Dunbar, Sir Thomas Metham, and Sir William Alford, to view the forts and munition at Kingston-upon-Hull, who made one Kerton, a convict recusant, and suspected to be a priest, their clerk in that service.[35]

It is well known that Lord Dunbar and Sir Thomas Metham were Roman Catholics. Had Sir William Alford not been of the same religious persuasion, he would scarcely have acted as their colleague on these occasions.

The estrangement of which Lancelot Turner complained, when he revoked his gift of the clock to his "good and worthy friend," may possibly have been occasioned by Sir William's dislike of that outward conformity to Protestantism, which Lancelot had found it convenient to a.s.sume in his latter days.

Like other country gentlemen, Lancelot Turner had a town-house for his occasional residence, as well as his manor-house of Towthorpe. You show us that in December, 1619, when he executed his last will he is described of Towthorpe; but you think that the codicil, which is dated a few days before his death, was probably made at York.[36] There is no doubt that in his last illness he was residing in Goodramgate, in the house which his nephew afterwards occupied. Part of the street called Goodramgate is in the parish of Saint John del Pike, which was then, as it is now, united to the parish of the Holy Trinity Goodramgate; and I find in the register-book of the united parishes, an entry of the burial of "Mr.

Lancelot Turner" on Jan. 16, 1620.

Upon the death of his uncle, William Turner made Towthorpe[37] his princ.i.p.al perhaps his only place of abode, and exactly two years after that event, viz., on Jan. 14, 1621-2, his marriage to Thomasine Newton was solemnized at the little church of the parish of Huntington, in which the towns.h.i.+p of Towthorpe is situate. The extreme youth of the lady was most probably the cause of the postponement of the marriage (which, as you observe, had evidently been contemplated by the uncle) until the expiration of two years after his death. At that time she could not have been more than fifteen years old. Her father, Christopher Newton, was not of age in 1604, when his father, Miles Newton, died;[38] and it is pretty certain that he was not then married.

In what creed either of the parents of Edith Pope was educated, we have no means of ascertaining, but we may reasonably suppose that their religious faith would take its colour from that which was professed by him of whom they were the adopted children. If the Roman Catholic tendency were less manifest in them, we see it abundantly developed in their numerous offspring, of whom a considerable proportion, we are told, were avowedly members of the ancient church.

The origin of that particular regard which Lancelot Turner had for Thomasine Newton remains inexplicable. His having "household stuff at Kilburn," which he bequeathed to her by his will, would indicate that he had occasionally resided at the house of her parents at that place. The will of either of them might have thrown some light upon these points; but such doc.u.ments, if they exist, have hitherto eluded our researches.

About thirteen months after the marriage of William Turner and Thomasine Newton, their first child was born. "Christian Turner,[39] daughter of William Turner of Towthorpe gentleman," was baptized at Huntington on Feb.

19, 1622-23. The second child was a son. On March 30, 1624, "George Turner, son of William Turner of Towthorpe gentleman," was baptized at Huntington. This was doubtless one of the youths whose "gentle blood was shed in honour's cause." About two years afterwards, the second daughter was born--Alice, of whom you speak as the wife of Richard Mawhood,[40] was baptized at Huntington on the 23rd of March, 1625-6. After this time the parochial register of Huntington ceases to yield any information relating to William Turner or his family.

In the same year in which he was married, William Turner made a purchase, with what specific object it is now in vain to inquire, of a house in Stonegate, York. In the deed (dated Nov. 5, 1622) by which the property was conveyed to him he is described "William Turner of Towthropp in the county of York gentleman." Whatever may have been his motive for purchasing a house in York, he did not long retain the owners.h.i.+p of it. By a deed dated June 5, 1626, "William Turner of Towthropp gentleman, and Thomasine his wife," transferred all their interest in the property to William Scott of York merchant, and John Lasinbye of Huntington yeoman. It maybe surmised that Scott and Lasinbye were not purchasers, but merely trustees for effecting some charitable or other purpose not strictly legal, which had soon afterwards been brought into litigation or dispute.

On June 3, 1630, William Turner, who was then at York, joined with William Scott and John Lasinbye in an absolute conveyance of the property to Robert Hemsworth and Thomas Hoyle, aldermen, and several other persons, also members of the corporation of York. This conveyance is stated to have been made in performance of a decree of the Court of Chancery, dated Feb.

20 preceding, in accordance with an act of Parliament pa.s.sed in the 43rd year of Queen Elizabeth, int.i.tuled "An Act to redress the Misemployment of Lands and Tenements theretofore given to Charitable Uses." Of this transaction I will not venture to offer any further explanation.

A chasm of ten years now occurs in my chronology. I do not again meet with the name of William Turner until the year 1640, when he was once more a resident in York, most probably occupying the same house in Goodramgate in which his uncle Lancelot lived and died. The register of the united parishes of Saint John del Pike and Holy Trinity Goodramgate, contains entries of the baptism of "Judith, the daughter of Mr. William Turner," on July 16, 1640, and of the burial of the same child on Aug. 3 in the same year. The removal of the family from York must have taken place soon afterwards. For an account of the circ.u.mstances attending their residence in the West Riding, I need only refer to your valuable tract.[41]

I am unable to give any a.s.sistance towards dispelling the obscurity in which that period of the history of William Turner is involved, that extends from the month of June, 1626, when he is described "of Towthrope,"

until the birth of his daughter Judith at York in the summer of 1640. It is clear that he was at York in June, 1630; but I have met with nothing to show where he pa.s.sed the preceding four years or the following ten years.

During these fourteen years his wife presented him with two sons and seven daughters; but I have failed to discover the entry of the baptism of any of these children, either at York or at Huntington.

Neither have I succeeded in my attempts to ascertain at what time, or under what circ.u.mstances, William Turner disposed of the manor of Towthorpe. John George Smyth, Esq. of Heath, near Wakefield, M.P. for the city of York, is the present owner of the estate, which was purchased, in the early part of the last century, by one of his ancestors, from Sir Charles Dalston, Bart., to whom it had descended from his grandfather, Sir William Dalston, the first baronet of that name. The Dalstons were a c.u.mberland family, and Sir William had most probably acquired the Towthorpe estate by his marriage with Anne Bolles, the eldest daughter and coheir of that singular person, Lady Bolles of Heath Hall, the Baronetess, whose curious history is narrated in your interesting "Antiquarian Notices of Lupset, the Heath, and Sharlston."

You state that William Turner was living in the parish of Saint John del Pike at the time of the Heralds' Visitation in 1665, and was one of the persons whom they summoned to appear.[42] The visits of the heralds at York took place in the months of August and September in that year; and perhaps you would not have imputed blame to him for having neglected that opportunity of recording his genealogy, had you been aware that he was then in his last illness, awaiting a more solemn summons. He died within a month after the date of his will, and was buried in the church of the Holy Trinity Goodramgate, on Oct. 3, 1665. Had the heralds made their visitation at York a few months sooner, we should doubtless have possessed their testimony, that the Turners were ent.i.tled to take rank among the gentry of York. But it will now, perhaps, be admitted that no such testimony is requisite.

It has been shown by unimpeachable evidence that Edward Turner, the great-grandfather of Edith Pope, was the son of a substantial citizen of York, who flourished in the reign of King Henry VII.; that, having advanced a step higher in the social scale, he maintained during great part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the rank of a gentleman, and a.s.sociated upon a footing of equality with the best of the inhabitants of a city which was then "the glory of the North"; that, in addition to the property he inherited in the city, he acquired lands of considerable value in the county, and these he transmitted to his descendants; that his eldest son, Lancelot Turner, by means of his paternal fortune, was enabled, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, to purchase the manor and estate of Towthorpe, and thus attain the _status_ of a country gentleman; and in that position, dying childless, was succeeded by his nephew, William Turner, who "made choice of, to be the mother of his children,"[43] of whom Edith Pope was one, a lady who was not only herself of good family, but was (as you have remarked[44]) allied with several of the higher Yorks.h.i.+re gentry.

That genealogical critic must indeed be fastidious, who would deny the Poet's right to a.s.sert that his mother was of _gentle blood_ and of an _ancient family_.

The baptismal register of William Turner, by which his birth is placed only two or three years earlier than the date you have conjecturally a.s.signed for that event, shows that he was in his sixty-ninth year when he died. His wife survived him nearly sixteen years. "Mrs. Turner, widow,"

was buried in the church of the Holy Trinity Goodramgate, on Sept. 11, 1681. Administration of the goods of "Thomasine Turner of York," who died intestate, was granted by the archbishop's court to her daughter Mary Turner, spinster, on Dec. 2, 1681. From the circ.u.mstance of Mary being the sole administratrix it may be inferred that the only surviving son, William Turner, was then absent from York, and that Mary was the oldest of the unmarried daughters who had remained at home.[45] But there is no reason to suppose that she had remained there alone. We may presume that Edith was one of her companions, and took part in administering to the comforts of their mother's last hours--in a.s.sisting to "rock the cradle of reposing age."

a.s.suming it to have been soon after the Restoration that William Turner returned to York, his daughter Edith was then just entering into womanhood, so that for nearly twenty years of the bloom of her life she was domesticated with her family within the walls of our venerable city.

Their residence stood under the very shadow of the towers of our cathedral, the parish of Saint John del Pike being usually regarded as forming part of the Minster-close. The neighbourhood in which they lived was crowded with the stately mansions of the dignitaries of the church, the higher officers of the ecclesiastical courts, and many of the wealthy families of the county. We cannot doubt that the Turners moved in the best society of which the city could at that period boast; not so brilliant and dignified as when it shone with the splendour of the vice-regal court of the Lords Presidents of the North; but still aristocratic, refined, and intellectual,--a society in which Edith Turner might receive that training which fitted her to hold converse in after-life with Bolingbroke, and Congreve, and Swift.

When, upon the death of Mrs. Turner, the daughters who had remained under the maternal roof at York had to seek a home with their married sisters in other parts of the kingdom, it was Edith's lot to remove to London, where she became the wife of Alexander Pope, and the mother of the Poet, whose name you justly designate "one of the greatest among Englishmen."

It now only remains for me to offer to you my cordial thanks for the valuable information and suggestions with which you have favoured me in the progress of my investigation; and to a.s.sure you that I shall feel highly gratified if the additional facts I have brought to light satisfactorily blend with or prove to be in any measure ill.u.s.trative of those contained in your more important narrative.

I must not conclude without gratefully acknowledging the kindness of my York friends,[46] who have, with the utmost readiness and liberality, given me free access to the records and doc.u.ments which form many of my authorities.

I am, my dear Sir, with much respect, most faithfully yours, ROBERT DAVIES.

THE MOUNT, YORK, _April, 1858_.

LONDON: F. PICKTON, PRINTER, Perry's Place, 29, Oxford Street.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Johnson is probably in the wrong. They are printed as Lady Mary's in the collection ent.i.tled _The Poetical Works of the Right Honourable Lady M--y W--y M--e_. Dublin: 12mo, 1768, p. 26.

It is rather remarkable that we should find in private doc.u.ments two ladies whom Pope had made the subject of his severest satire, both manifesting curiosity about the contents of his will. Lady Hervey (Mary Lepell) writes on the 20th July, 1744, respecting one clause in it; but she writes darkly, and the editor of her Letters has not cleared away the obscurity. Lady Mary's curiosity is expressed in letters perhaps not so well known; at least I copy from the originals. They are addressed to her intimate friend the Countess of Oxford.--"_Avignon, Aug. 10, 1744._--I hear that Pope is dead, but suppose it is a mistake, since your Ladys.h.i.+p has never mentioned it. If it is so, I have some small curiosity for the disposition of his affairs, and to whom he has left the enjoyment of his pretty house at Twict'nam, which was in his power to dispose of for only one year after his decease." Again:--"_Avignon, Oct. 15._--I am surprised Lord Burlington is unmentioned in Pope's will. On the whole, it appears to me more reasonable and less vain than I expected from him." It was from Lady Oxford that she had received a copy of the will. In another letter (not of this series) Lady Mary speaks of having converted an old ruined windmill on the heights of Avignon into a belvedere, from which she says there was commanded the finest land prospect she had ever seen; then recollecting what were perhaps the happiest months of her life (for her happiness is to be counted by months, not years), she adds, "except Wharncliffe." This "belvedere" must have been on the hill on which still stand the cathedral and the Pope's palace, now barracks. The prospect, though magnificent, does not naturally recal the forests and moors of Wharncliffe. No traces of the "belvedere" are discoverable.

[2] See _Private Memoirs of John Potenger, Esquire_, edited by his Descendant, C. W. Bingham, M.A. 12mo. 1841. The editor confines himself very much to the one member of the family to whom the memoirs relate; and we have no notice of any connection with the name of Pope, or of any collateral branches of the Potengers. The Mr. Potenger, the friend of the Dean of Carlisle, is reasonably supposed to be Mr. Richard Potenger, who was elected three times member for Reading--1727, 1734, and again in 1735, when he was re-elected, having accepted a Welsh judges.h.i.+p. Beatson informs us that on November 28, 1739, a new writ was ordered on his death.

[3] See, for the Rockleys and Burdets, the _History of the Deanery of Doncaster_, vol. ii. pp. 285 and 376.

[4] I infer this from the following letter of Pope's, possibly the only letter of dry business written by him which has been preserved, printed in the book ent.i.tled _Additions to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq._, 2 vols. 8vo, 1776, vol. ii. p. 30:--"To John Vanden Bempden, Esq., present.

Thursday. Sir,--Upon what you told me when I was last to wait on you, I deferred treating further for the rent-charge till you could be more certain what sum you could conveniently raise in present towards the purchase. If there were only three of [_q._ or] four hundred pounds wanting, we would take your bond; for, as to a mortgage on the rent-charge, my father is not qualified to take it, for by an act of parliament he cannot buy land, though he may sell. However, if you desire to make the purchase soon, I believe I have a friend who will lend you the 1000, on the same security you offer us. If you have any scruple, you'll please to tell it me fairly; but, if this purchase be convenient to you, we shall think of treating with no other, and be ready upon your answer; since I think what I here propose, entirely accommodates all the difficulty you seem to be at. I am, Sir, your very humble servant, A.

POPE." I conclude this relates to Ruston, the Vanden Bempd's being then acc.u.mulating the estate now enjoyed by their descendant, Sir John Vanden Bempd Johnstone, Baronet, whose beautiful seat is at Hackness, near to Ruston.