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.

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 £10, 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 £30, to issue out of his lordship of Towthorpe, and also the use (interest) 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.

We come now to an interesting bequest:—To Thomasine Newton, daughter of Christopher Newton, late of Kilburn, gentleman, an annuity of £50 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, £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.

But of this will a more particular account must be given, as showing in what rank of society the parents