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EDMUND TURNOR, Esa. M. A. F. R.S. & S. A.

The family of this excellent English gentleman and antiquary is supposed to have come over to this country at the time of the Norman Conquest; their name was originally spelt Tournour, afterwards Turnour.

Edmund Turnor, Esq. of Stoke Rochford and Panton, in the County of Lincoln, was descended from a younger branch of the Turnours of Haverhill in Suffolk, whose representative is the Earl of Wintertoun. His ancestor, Christopher Turnor, became seated at Milton Erneys in Bedfordshire, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, by marriage with Isabel, daughter and heiress of Sir Walter Erneys. Their grandson Christopher had two sons, who rose to considerable eminence. Sir Christopher, the elder, was appointed one of the Barons of the Exchequer in 1660, and at his death left as his widow a sister of the celebrated Sir Philip Warwick, a lady who lived to the age of 101. From that marriage the families of Byng and Pocock are descended. The younger brother, Edmund, was one of the Farmers of the Customs, and was likewise knighted in 1633*.

* There is a portrait of Sir Edmund in the house at Stoke Rochford, painted by Verelst; and a print of it in Mr. Turnor's History of Grantham, engraved by Fitler. In the same place is also a portrait of John Turnor, Esq. (son of Sir Edmund) and of Diana Cecil, his wife, both by Sir Godfrey Kneller; the latter is engraved in inezzotinto by Beckett. The portrait of Sir Christopher Turnor, at the same place, painted in his Judge's robes, by Sir P. Lely, as one of the Barons of the Exchequer, was purchased at Lord Torrington's sale, many years since, by Mr. Turnor; and was considered by Sir Joshua Reynolds one of the finest pictures of that master. It is due to Sir J. Reynolds to record the following circumstance, which is one of the many proofs of his obliging disposition. At the above-mentioned sale, Sir Joshua had intended purchasing this picture as a rare example of Sir P. Lely's pencil; but when it was made

By marriage with Margaret, daughter of Sir John Harrison, of Balls, near Hertford, Knt. he became possessed of the manor of Stoke Rochford, and from that alliance the subject of this memoir was fourth in descent. His great-grandmother was Diana Cecil, a granddaughter of the second Earl of Salisbury*. His father was Edmund Turnor, Esq. who died at Panton-house, Jan. 22, 1805, at the age of eighty-ninet, and his mother was Mary, known to him by William Seward, Esq. that the subject of the picture was a member of the family of his friend Mr. Turnor, who much wished to possess it, Sir Joshua most obligingly declined bidding for it, and it was purchased by Mr. Turnor.

* In the house at Stoke Rochford is a fine painting by Zucchero of Robert the first Earl, the Treasurer and Prime Minister of King James the First.

+ He left, besides the subject of this memoir, three other sons: The Rev. George Turnor, of Trinity-college, Cambridge, LL.B. 1783; and presented by his father in that year to the Rectory of Panton and Vicarage of Milton Erneys. In 1822 he was collated by Bishop Pelham to the Prebend of Lafford in the Cathedral Church of Lincoln; and he died in 1824.

John Turnor, Esq.also of Trinity-college, Cambridge, B. A. 1788, M.A. 1793, Barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple, and living 1829. This gentleman, with motives purely benevolent, has greatly exerted himself to recommend to the public the White Mustard Seed as an efficacious medicine. In this object he has spared neither expense nor trouble, having published his "Observations" on the subject in various forms; and made an extensive tour on the continent (from which he returned in the spring of 1829 after two years' absence) solely to spread its fame in foreign countries.

The Rev. Charles Turnor, as his three elder brothers, of Trinity-college, Cambridge; B. A. 1791, M. A. 1794; F.S.A. 1791. He was presented to the Vicarage of Wendover in Buckinghamshire by the Crown in 1802. In 1811, when his brother was High Sheriff of Lincolnshire, he preached an Assize Sermon in Lincoln Cathedral, which was afterwards printed. In 1818 he was collated by Bishop Tomline to the Prebend of Sutton in Marisco in the Cathedral Church of Lincoln; and in 1825 he succeeded his brother George as Vicar of Milton Erneys. Mr. Turnor is also a Justice of the Peace for Buckinghamshire; and author of "Thoughts on the present state of the Poor; with hints for the improvement of their condition; in a Letter addressed to the Archdeacon of Lincoln," 1818. There were also four daughters: Elizabeth-Frances, the wife VOL. VI.

2 a

only_daughter of John Disney, of Lincoln, Esq. by Frances, daughter of George Cartwright, of Ossington in Nottinghamshire, Esq.

Mr. Turnor was a Fellow Commoner of Trinitycollege, Cambridge, where he proceeded B. A. 1777, M. A. 1781. On quitting the University, he took a tour in France, Switzerland, and Italy. He early acquired a taste for topography and antiquities, and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1778. In 1779 he printed in 4to, "Chronological Tables of the High Sheriffs of the County of Lincoln, and of the Knights of the Shire, Citizens, and Burgesses in Parliament within the same, from the earliest accounts to the present time. London, printed by Joseph White." In 1781, Mr. Turnor is mentioned in a letter of Mr. Brooke, Somerset Herald, to Mr. Gough, as desirous "to know whether your Camden for Lincolnshire is printed, as he will add to it;" which from a subsequent letter it appears he did+.

In 1783 he compiled and printed a neat little pamphlet, intituled, "London's Gratitude; or, an Account of such pieces of Sculpture and Painting as have been placed in Guildhall at the expense of the City of London. To which is added a List of those distinguished persons to whom the Freedom of the City has been presented since the year MDCCLVIII. With Engravings of the Sculptures, &c." small 8vo.

Again, in 1783, Mr. Brooke mentions a tour which Mr. Turnor had made in Normandy, and adds, that "he has had some drawings made of

of Samuel Smith, Esq. of Woodhall-park, co. Hertford (next brother to Lord Carrington); Mary-Anne, of Sir William Foulis, Bart.; Diana, of Sir Thomas Whichcote, Bart.; and Frances, unmarried.

* And sister to Dr. Disney, the subject of a previous memoir in the present volume.

+ See before, pp. 405, 408; and also other allusions to Mr. Turnor in Mr. Brooke's letters to Mr. Gough, pp. 420, 425, &c. Mr. Turner was one of those intimate friends of Mr. Brooke, who attended his funeral (see p. 358).

antiquities in that country, which he will bring to town to show us next year. He is much delighted with his expedition *." In pursuance of this promise, Mr. Turnor communicated to the Society of Antiquaries in the following spring, a "Description of an ancient Castle at Rouen in Normandy, called Le Château du Vieux Palais, built by Henry V. King of England t." Mr. Turnor, it thence appears, had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Rouen.

In 1792 Mr. Turnor communicated to the Society, as a supplement to the volume of Household Accounts which they had published, "Extracts from the Household Book of Thomas Cony, of Bassingthorpe, co. Lincoln," a MS. in his own possession.

In the Royal Society Mr. Turnor was associated in 1786, and in 1792 he communicated to that body "A narrative of the Earthquake felt in Lincolnshire, and the neighbouring Counties, on the 25th of February 1792. In a letter to Sir Joseph Banks §."

In 1793 Mr. Turnor communicated to Dr. Kippis, for his edition of the "Biographia Britannica," then in progress, a memoir of Sir Richard Fanshawe, the eminent statesman, negotiator, and poet, in the reign of Charles the First. He had been led to this subject by a perusal of the interesting memoirs left in MS. by Lady Fanshawe ¶,

* See p. 414.

†This was read before the Society, April 1, 1784, and, with a folding plate of two views and a plan of the castle, is printed in the Archæologia, vol. VII. pp. 232-235. Mr. Turnor also furnished the Society with a drawing of a Fountain (since removed) in the Place de la Pucelle at Rouen, which was engraved in the Vetusta Monumenta, vol. II., plate xxxviii.

These were read, Jan. 19, 1792, and are printed in the Archæologia, vol. XI., pp. 22-33.

§ Read May 10, 1792, and printed in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. LXXXII. pp. 283-288.

|| Printed in the fifth volume of that biographical collection, pp. 661-664.

They were first published complete in 1829, with an appendix of correspondence, edited by N. H. Nicolas, Esq.; see the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. XCIX. pt. ii. p. 238.

who was Anne, daughter of Sir John Harrison, and elder sister to Margaret, the wife of Sir Edmund Turnor, before-mentioned. From the same source Mr. Turnor communicated some extensive extracts to Mr. Seward's collection of Anecdotes.

In the same year he printed, in an elegant little volume, "Characters of Eminent Men in the Reigns of Charles I. and II. including the Rebellion. From the Works of Lord Chancellor Clarendon."

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In 1801 Mr. Turnor furnished the Society of Antiquaries with some "Remarks on the Military History of Bristol in the Seventeenth Century *, where his ancestor, afterwards Sir Edmund Turnor, was treasurer of the garrison for Charles the First; and in 1802 with "A Declaration of the Diet and Particular Fare of King Charles the First, when Duke of York," from a manuscript in vellum, in the possession of his brother-in-law Sir William Foulis, the descendant and representative of Sir David Foulis, the Prince's Cofferer t.

At the close of the year 1802 Mr. Turnor was elected to Parliament for the borough of Midhurst; but he sat only until the dissolution in 1806. He served the office of High Sheriff for Lincolnshire in 1810-11; and for a long period acted in the commission of the peace for that county. As he was well versed in the laws of his country, and was cool, judicious, and accessible, his retirement, some years before his death, from the duties of a magistrate, was a matter of regret to his neighbourhood. He has been known to express his dislike of the character of an over-zealous magistrate, but no one more exhibited in his own person the just and useful one.

Having for a considerable time made the topography of his neighbourhood his study, in 1806 Mr. Turnor published the result of his researches in a

* These were read June 11 and 18 that year, and, with a plate giving a plan of the Outworks, were printed in the Archæologia, vol, XIV. pp. 119–131.

† It is printed in the Archæologia, vol. XV. pp. 1-19.