Sir Edward Turner 2nd Bt 1719-1766

Sir Edward Turner 2nd Bt,1719-1766  by Sir Thomas Gainsborough

Sir Edward Turner 2nd Bt was the son of Sir Edward Turner, 1st Baronet and his wife Mary. He received his early education at Bicester Grammar School and then Eton 1725-32; He went on to Balliol College, Oxford where he was noted for his "distinguished scholarship and the regularity of his behaviour". He was noted for his distinguished scholarship Deane Swift, cousin of the Irish satirist, Jonathan Swift, wrote of him later in life in 1765 in a letter to Sanderson Miller, the architect, “Does your friend, Sir Edward Turner, continue to be a friend to Apollo and the Muses? I wish you Could persuade him to write, as no man I think in England so well deserves to wear the Laurels”. He gained his BA in 1735 at the time of his father’s death, and then spent some years in Europe on the Grand Tour before returning to take his MA in 1738. 

Sir Edward Turner 2nd Bt  and Cassandra Turner nee Leigh marriage portrait by Alan Ramsay

He married Cassandra Leigh, niece of the Dr Leigh Master of Balliol (who was to be a frequent visitor at Ambrosden House.) on the 8 September 1739 in Adlestrop. They had nine children, five of them surviving to adulthood. The Turner household must have been a most stimulating environment for the children with frequent Visits from politicians including Prime Minister, George Grenville and possibly William Pitt, as well as University academics and no doubt lovers of Apollo and the Muses. At Christmas, the Turners were regularly joined by the Miller family. He became 2nd Baronet on the death of his father in 1735. Sir Edward graduated from Balliol College in 1738 with a Master of Arts (M.A.). He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) by Balliol College in 1744. Turner died in 1766 and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son Sir Gregory Page-Turner, 3rd Baronet. He is buried at Bicester, Oxfordshire. 

According to Mrs Theophilus Leigh (1694-1785) history of the Leigh family.  "The Leigh family were overjoyed by the marriage of Mrs Leigh's eldest daughter Cassandra to Sir Edward Turner, Bart of Ambrosden. At Bailiol his distinguished scholarship and regularity of behaviour first introduced him to the Master of Bailol and Uncle of Cassandra, Doctor Leigh. Cassandra aged 13 first met Sir Edward at her Uncles House. The Leigh family delighted in the ease and gaiety of Ambrosden and receiving the kindest instruction from Sir Edward in every branch of improvement; for by his knowledge, attended by happy communication, in the Belles Lettres, in music, painting and Poetry. Cassandra never harboured an unfavourable opinion, she was generous and charitable. Shortly after she married Sir Gregory they travelled to Europe with her parents Mr and Mrs Leigh, visiting Utrecht and Flanders. They had to cut short their tour due to unrest in France and narrowly escaped being taken by a French Privateer.

In about 1740 Turner replaced the Ambrosden manor house with a large square country house of eleven bays. His architect was Sanderson Miller, who also designed ornamental buildings on the grounds. A landscaped park 5 miles (8.0 km) in circumference was laid out around the house. The park was ornamented with lakes and statues, and the drive to the house was along a semicircular avenue of trees. Turner's new house became a meeting place for politicians and cultivated society. Cassandra's uncle Dr. Leigh and other wits and learned men from the University of Oxford were frequent visitors. During the Christmas vacation in the years 1762, 1763 and 1764 the plays “The Distressed Mother “, “Morning Bride”, “The Earl of Essex” and the farce of “Miss in her Teens” were performed at Ambrosden in each performance his eldest son “Gregory” took a prominent part, and acquitted himself much to the satisfaction of the neighbouring gentry who witnessed them. In 1741 Turner built a new road between Ambrosden and Merton, Oxfordshire. He intended to continue it to Oxford but the remainder of the project was never executed. The road was reputed to cost a guinea a yard. The road includes a completely straight stretch of about 1.5 miles (2.4 km). It runs across level ground but its course undulates at regular intervals, apparently intended to help draught animals pull vehicles. In 1740 Sir James Harington, 6th Baronet, who had accrued large debts by gambling, mortgaged his estate at Merton to Turner. Harington was a Jacobite and in 1747 fled into exile to join Charles Edward Stuart. In 1749 Turner foreclosed the mortgage and thereby obtained the manor of Merton. As Turner had just had a great house built for himself at Ambrosden, Turner had no need of the 16th-century manor house at Merton, so he had one wing demolished and the other turned into a farmhouse. 

   

Sir Edward Turner 2nd Bt by Philip Mercier     Casandra Lady Turner by George Smith 

From his letters to Miller, it is obvious that Sir Edward’s education and travels had instilled in him a deep knowledge and love of antiquities without ever being dubbed by the vogue word of the day, an antiquarian, as was Sanderson Miller The excavation of Herculaneum and Pompeii (1738-56) had aroused a much deeper interest and understanding of all aspects of the classical world and led to a nee-classical movement in W. Europe that was to have a profound effect on all aspects of Culture. The translations by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) of Homer’s Iliad (1720) and Odyssey (1726) into English provided access to the romance and magic of the classical world. Children learnt Latin and ancient Greek and read the works of Homer, Cicero and Ovid; the young nobility ‘finished’ their education, as did Sir Edward, assimilating the antiquities of Rome and Athens on the ‘Grand Tour’. Enormous interest in classical antiquities was inspired by the publication in 1753 of Giovanni Piranesi’s Antichita Ramane, a large collection of etchings of Roman antiquities, evoking not unlike David Birtwhistle’s recent watercolours of Roman ruins in N. Africa, a sense of wonder and magic about almost-living ruins. Architects such as Robert Adam and his brother James relieved the geometric formality of Palladian facades with inventively romantic variations and, taking their lead from the French interior decorator, Charles Clerisseau, they created lavish but exquisitely tasteful staircases, stucco ceilings and fireplaces to adorn halls, galleries, saloons and drawing rooms, The sublime beauty and proportions of Greek vases and statues were captured in the new ceramic techniques by the Meissen (near Dresden) porcelain factory in Germany which modelled and crafted magnificent ceramic figurines, while the Sevres factory (established in 1738 near Paris) began supplying the nobility with bleu de roi and Rose Pompadaur porcelain. Both factories provided an impetus to ceramics producers in England (Chelsea and Royal Worcester wares from 1750). Potter, Josiah Wedgwood and furniture and cabinetmaker, Thomas Chippendale contributed further to the insatiable 18th C demand for aesthetic belongings. The French writer, Voltaire (1694-1778) embodied the political aspirations of the 18th C Enlightenment which led eventually to the French Revolution in 1789 as did Swiss writer and political philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau who in The Social Contract championed the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity that were to have such a powerful influence on French revolutionary thought. He also influenced educational thinking by advocating a free spirit in the upbringing of children in his novel, Emile. 

In England, writers like Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, Henry Fielding, Horace Walpole and Oliver Goldsmith explored the intellectual, social and political life of the age William Hogarth, the painter and copper engraver pointed satirically at moral issues in paintings like ‘A Rake ’5 Progress’ (1735) and Marriage 5: la Mode (1745). He also published a work on aesthetics, The Analysis of Beauty which, however, was not well received in England. It was, of course, an ideal time for a man of wealth and taste, like Sir Edward, to be fulfilled: in 1732 the Covent Garden Opera House opened; ten years later in 1742 Handel composed The Messiah; David Garrick was performing Richard III at Drury Lane and Laurence Sterne with his novel, Tristram Shandy became the darling of fashionable London society in the 17605 The quadrille had given way to the waltz, and Society Sipped gin and read The Gentleman ‘5 Magazine (first published 1731) at clubs and cafes (Sir Edward writes one of his letters from Garraways in London). The nobility employed classical architects such as Adam and Miller to build their mansions and villas, though Miller also indulged a lingering appetite for the Gothic style Landscape designers, such as the incomparable Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown rusticated their parks and portraitists such as Thomas Gainsborough and Pompeo Batoni preserved their images on canvas. Sir Edward writes in his letters of his attendance at performances of Handel’s Oratorio to Joshua in Oxford and to Solomon (composed 1748) and the Si Cecelia Mass in London. He also enjoyed Theatre Royal productions at Drury Lane, with special acclaim for the performance of actors, David Garrick, who also managed the theatre from 1746, and Mrs Cibber, the former celebrated contralto for whom Handel wrote parts in Samson and the Messiah. Sir Edward must have presented himself as the ideal potential customer for poets, musicians and actors as this anecdote indicates: 

London, November 9'” I754 DEAR MlLLER,—in answer to your letter——no, I will not answer it. for an Occurrence strikes me which I will impart to you. On Thursday Morning a Poet introduced himself to me. with a greater appearance of Opulence in his laced Coat, than generally distinguished the Apollonian Race. He claimed the honour of having assisted Mr Crisp in his Tragedy. ( Fanny Bume'y‘s “Daddy ", who never got over the failure of his tragedy. Virginia,) Should not such a man go to Virginia? Lord Coventry knows nothing of him. He pulled out of his Pocket a Bundle of Muses and was going to torment me with his Recital of Elegies (they had all proved Elegies to me), Sonnets, and Comedies. Pastorals, Tragedys (my Situation during his Visit is a good Subject for a Tragedy) and Pindarics! but the Arrival of a Friend rescued me luckily from Poetic Assassination. One symptom of a great Genius he discovered. for had not I reminded Him in his Retreat he had left me the Legacy of a Hat and a Pair of Gloves! 

Sir Edward Turner was elected MP for Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire in the 1741 General Election two years after marrying Cassandra Leigh, Sir Edward won the Gt. Bedwin, Wilts, seat representing the New or Whig Interest which was at the height of its power at this time despite the toppling of Sir Robert Walpole in 1742. Whigs were prominent in trade, banking and as nouveau riche landowners; all embraced the Hanoverian succession and many regarded Tories as crypto-Jacobites. Sir Edward as a young, ambitious man would have seen himself at the core of Whig ideology, In 1745 he and other Oxfordshire gentlemen had made plans to resist the advance of the Young Pretender (‘Bonnie Prince Charlie”) after news of his victory at Prestonpans in September. Dunkin refers to a company of volunteers, raised by Mr Raymond, a hemp dresser of Bicester, and either a tenant or possibly a relative of a tenant of Sir Edward’s. Charles Stuart’s advance towards London was, however, halted at Derby in December 1745. Sir Edward was educated at a Tory College, connected with a Tory family though descended from old Whigs, the party marked him for their own, and with them he moderately coalesced till the “Rebellion in 45” when associating in favour of the King (he never had a grain of Jacobitism). Sir Edward was ever a most independent man, and even when ranked under the court banner, opposed the Minister as he had more than once voted for him when in opposition; for he stood for the county unassisted by anyone and the election cost him £20,000. He forbade any election conversation at Ambrosden not wishing to hear anyone abused. In two of his earliest surviving letters to Miller, 

Sir Edward writes of his disillusionment with Parliament’s financial ineptitude: Ambrosden May 15th 1746 Hang the Parliament! Why should I have stayed boiling in London any longer? When a vote of Credit for so large a sum as £50,000 can be swallowed so easily by those who were formerly noted for great delicacy in their Political food. what can raise our admiration? In short, my patience is worn out. in seeing politicians swallow down Ministerial Pudding piping hot without so much as blistering their tongues ‘The House of Commons is like Bartholomew Fair! Merry Andrews skipped about, pulling coloured ribbons out of their mouths, swallowing tow and hemp, and shuffling balls from one cup to another with the utmost dexterity. December 6th I 746 Two Troops of Horse have been broke very suddenly. An expense of £70,000 per Ann. will be saved. This small pebble of Economy thrown into the Pool of Ministerial Extravagance may be a National Benefit should it touch some other Circles and occasion an extensive Reformation. In the same letter, he chides Miller for the poor attendance of Country Gentlemen members in Parliament, presumably many of them Tories‘ December 6th, l 746 

DEAR MlLLER,—Are you still a Country Gentleman and can you make any enquiry after Taxes? Persons of that Denomination seem to have forgotten Public affairs. Few of their Representatives have appeared at the House this Session. Sir Charles [Mordaunt] indeed hath attended, so that a Warwickshire Man hath the less reason to apply to the Rotten Representative of a Burrough for Political intelligence.- We are told that about Eight Million will he wanted, on what the new Duties will be laid is a secret. If new Duties must be raised. 1 think the most proper Object of such Burdens is Luxury—But can those Members who cling to their Houses in the Country complain with any grace of the most exceptional Measures that are carried on. Dum tacent, laudant [Silence is approval]. Sir Charles Mordaunt held the Walton seat and represented the County of Warwick for over 49 years in Parliament. ‘Rotten representative' is a reference to a parliamentary representative or sponsor who won his seat with bribery and offered little patronage to his borough. There are understandably several references in Sir Edward’s letters to military issues: naval engagements, land battles, allies, issues of neutrality and the court-martial and execution of Admiral Byng in 1757, as his time in Parliament saw England almost continuously at war: The War of Jenkins’ Ear with Spain (1739-48), The War of the Austrian Succession initially supporting Austria against Prussia (1740-8), the Seven Years War allied to Prussia against France and Austria (1756-63) and war with the French in Canada and India. 1743 “General Wade is to have command of the Forces" (combined English and Hanoverian army in Flanders) 1747 “Will the Dutch declare war on the French or remain neutral?” Kensington, May 26th, I747 

DEAR SAN,-This moment the Landau is going to take me up for Ambrosden. where I hope to find myself tomorrow by Dinner time..... Belson stood by poor, Brave, Noble-spirited Grenville when he fell. "1 hope you are not hurt," said the Tenderness of Belson. “No. I am only killed." answered the Firmness of the Captain. 1 lament him most sincerely for - I love the Public. Adieu. In the naval battle off Cape Finisterre, in 1745, when Anson‘s squadron won a noteworthy victory over the French, Captain Thomas Grenville, of the Defiance, was killed by a cannonball, which struck off both his legs. He died very bravely, his last words being: ‘How much better to die than to stand arraigned before a court martial!’ Thomas Grenville was a younger brother of George Grenville who became prime minister, 1763-5, and a brother of Hester who married William Pitt, prime minister, 1766-8. George Grenville’s son, William, was also prime minister, 1806-7, slavery being abolished during his ministry. 1750 (Jan) ‘Melancholy News! 1400 Sailors belonging to Boscawen's Squadron gone to the bottom of the Monstrous Deep!' One of the issues to brought Sir Edward into conflict with landowners and farmers was the 'BSE or TB' issue of the day - murrain or cattle plague. The Government had passed regulations requiring infected animals to be slaughtered and offered a bounty to landowners to carry out the regulations. However, many landowners, especially in the Banbury area of Oxfordshire, were reluctant to carry out the order, no doubt concerned about antagonizing farmers over a loss of income. Sir Edward realizing that the issue was a sensitive one with landowners and farmers in the Banbury area wrote a letter to Miller responding to criticism of an action taken against the Constable of Finmore (Finmere): March, I747 

 DEAR SAN—The Reason why we levied Ten Pounds on the Constable of Finmore was, that instead of assisting, he obstructed the inspectors who gave orders that an infected Cow should be killed. I have heard that Sixty Thousand Cows either died or were killed in Lincolnshire. it was declared in the House of Commons about a month ago by a Person who could not easily be mistaken that £l40,000 (I will put into words that you may not imagine I have used a Figure too much) one Hundred and Forty Thousand Pounds had then been issued from the Treasury on the Head of Bounty Money. Experience hath not altered my Opinion since I saw you. I am still convinced that the Orders should be executed. Gentlemen, I know, in some places are tender to the Farmers. but if they would but consider that Themselves must be ultimately the Sufferers, they would see that they have no reason to indulge the absurd prejudices of their Tenants in opposition to their own sober Judgement. If every Gentleman would add twenty shillings to the Bounty Money and advance it immediately to his Tenant for every Cow that he shall kill in the Manner prescribed. he would be a very unreasonable Farmer who should complain, because of the Loss he would then sustain for the Public Security, would be extremely moderate. The Reason, as I imagine, for the Country People being so averse to Compliance with the Orders in several Places, is that they do not expect their Landlords will share in their Loss, otherwise, I cannot suppose that they would presume to set up their Rustick Politicks in Opposition to the Prudence of the Council, whose large share of Property must in this case exempt them from the Imputation of intending to hurt the Country. In 1752, he was clearly annoyed by the disregard for Government orders to eradicate the disease in the Banbury area. In an effort to halt the spread of the disease, he curtailed cattle markets in Bicester. a move which earned him considerable unpopularity. December I752 As to the Corporation of Banbury, I never showed any ill will towards it. When the Mayor acted in Defiance of the Session for the County and the Lord Chancellor had given his opinion that all Corporations were, with regard to the Horned Cattle Bill, within the County Jurisdiction, and the Distemper was brought into our neighbourhood by means of our Orders being contemned at Banbury, I own I did express my Disapprobation of the Mayor's Conduct and made my complaint to Lord Guilford. So far have I avoided partiality, that the Town of Bister (with which I have a very near Connection) hath suffered more than any other in the County by the Prohibition of Markets. Lord Guilford was Lord Francis North, 7th Earl of Guilford, of Wroxton Abbey, near Banbury. His son, Frederick North, then aged 20 was elected MP for Banbury in 1754 and became prime minister between 1770-82 during the War of American Independence. In the 1754 General Election Turner stood as one of the two Whig candidates for Oxfordshire. Both they and their Tory opponents for the Oxfordshire Election 1754 spent great sums of money on their campaigns, including providing lavish hospitality for electors to try to win their votes. Both parties' candidates were supported by local aristocrats. Turner and his running-mate, Viscount Parker were supported by the Duke of Marlborough, Earl Harcourt and Parker's father the Earl of Macclesfield. 

Undoubtedly the political event that brought Sir Edward into national prominence was the Oxfordshire Election of 1754. Sir Edward and Lord Parker, son of the Earl of Macclesfleld of Ewelme represented the Whig or New Interest and Lord Wenman of Thame and Sir James Dashwood of Kirtlington the Tory or Old Interest. This was the first election In Oxfordshire since 1710. The Septennial Act (1716) had lengthened the maximum life of Parliament to seven years, and as the expenses of the election fell upon the candidates, there was a gentleman’s agreement to shun elections, the Tories standing for the county while the Whigs represented the towns of Banbury and Woodstock. Friends of the candidates rallied around them and published pamphlets containing ridicule and abuse of Opposition candidates as much as any significant discussion of manifesto issues. One such pamphlet which embroiled Miller as a supporter of Sir Edward was entitled, “A comedy called The Canvassing Couple... With scenes, machines, and other decorations, Particularly a new scene in the Gothick Taste designed by Mr Miller”, Another pamphlet written by Dr King, Principal of St Mary Hall, Oxford is entitled “Serious Reflections on the Dangerous tendency of the Common Practice of Card-Playing especially of the Game of All Fours (euchre) as it hath been publicly played at Oxford in the present year of our Lord MDCCLIV.” The pamphlet condemns the game and the behaviour of the players. Dr King who is clearly not familiar with the game is outraged that the Knave (Right bower) should be more powerful than the king and uses this as an allusion to Whiggish trickery! Old Interest opponents scoffed at Sir Edward for posing as an aristocrat but being the son of a brewer. (This is presumably a reference to his father-in-law, Sir Gregory Page and Sir Gregory’s brother, Ambrose, who jointly owned a brewery at Wapping London). They also accused him of being a turncoat, which, apart from a pun on his name, was a reference to the fact that he had originally declared that he would not oppose Lord Wenman and Sir James Dashwood when they were first nominated but had changed his mind some months later when he found Lord Parker was willing to stand with him. This was a considerable source of Irritation to the Tories who claimed that they had thus not been given adequate time for making preparations to fight the election. There was much resentment too that Sir Edward had supported the Act for the Naturalization of Jews in 1753 which would have removed all civil restrictions on Jews, It is likely that the Government’s motive for this legislation was inspired by the expectation that the Act would liberalize the wealth of an influential group of merchants and financiers in England. There was such vehement opposition from the Church and throughout the country that the Pelham government, with an election just around the corner, hastily drew up a Bill to repeal it. Sir James Dashwood had debated strongly against the Act and the associated Plantation Act which entitled any Jew to the privileges of British citizenship after seven years’ residency in one of His Majesty’s American Colonies. 

It was thought that Sir Edward had shown little enthusiasm for the repeal and consequently, he was perceived as a Jewish sympathizer. It was customary in the build-up to an election for candidates to provide ‘entertainments’ for freeholders in different parts of their constituency – expensive ‘treats’ intended to woo or more likely coerce prospective voters. Sir James and Lord Wenman provided a treat at Watlington in 1752 attended by 300 freeholders and again at Henley in November 1753, part of an election campaign that reputedly cost over £20,000. There was further resentment in Banbury when the young Lord Guilford (later Lord North, prime minister, 1770-82), who was standing as the Tory candidate for Banbury, was not prepared to attend an entertainment for supporters of the New Interest there. A significant reason, he claimed, was that he considered such occasions attempts to bribe or pressure voters, Sir Edward felt, however, that it was very impolitic for him to slight Banbury by not supporting an entertainment there. Bribery (paying for votes) was illegal and any person proven to have given or received a bribe could be liable for a fine of £500 or lifelong disfranchisement unless they could demonstrate that someone on the other side had been guilty of the same offence. It seems that little notice was taken of this law and both sides customarily bribed voters without fear of reprisal. It is reputed that Sir James Dashwood paid eighty guineas in bribes in N. Oxfordshire villages and at Thame, For their part the Whig candidates reminded voters that the Tories had wanted to tax the whole county in order to build the Oxford Town Hall. They also linked Tories whenever possible to Papist and Jacobite sympathies, and claimed that many gentlemen of the Old Interest party had not been forthcoming with support to halt the progress of the Young Pretender in 1745. The crucial issue, however, that was to determine the outcome of the election was the question of who had the right to vote. By law, the right to vote was restricted to 40s freeholders, indeed right up to the Reform Act of 1832. But despite this, it appears that a great number of copyholders had voted as well as eighteen men (one from Ambrosden) who claimed they had been compelled to vote by threats and also several paupers and two insane people. Copyholders held their land by possessing a copy of the entry in the court roll (see Chap}, p.68) and paying only a ‘peppercorn’ (nominal) rent to the Lord of the Manor. There was also a group called the Bicester ‘Derbyholders’ who held their land on a lease granted in Elizabeth I’s reign by the Earl of Derby for an indefinite period, also for a peppercorn rent. Since the rent had never been collected, they were effectively freeholders. On election day riots took place in Oxford because the Tories had reputedly insisted on the polling booths being relocated from the usual spot in St Giles’ Field to the back of Exeter College in Broad Street, where they were protected by Tory mobs, twenty deep in places, preventing Whig supporters getting to the booths. On the freeholder votes cast the Sheriff declared that the Tory candidates had won the election but, after scrutiny and months of debate in Parliament about the rights of copyholders to vote, the decision was overturned, and Sir Edward and Lord Parker were declared duly elected by 228 votes to 98! There was considerable animosity over this decision, and a Bicester mob put an effigy in the town stocks with a notice reading ‘No liberty, no freeholders, but bribery and corruption forever’. In a letter to Miller, Sir Edward was clearly relieved to have won the election and thanked him for his support: The two Tory candidates won more votes but the returning officer made a "double return": declaring both pairs of candidates to be elected, leaving the House of Commons to make the decision. Both sides petitioned against the election of their opponents and the Commons examined the legitimacy of many of the individual votes. However, most MPs voted on partisan lines rather than on the merits of the case. The Whigs held a majority in the House of Commons, and therefore the two Whig candidates were declared elected. No speeches by Turner are recorded in Parliament 1755-61. Over the Minorca inquiry, he voted against Newcastle and Fox, on 26 Apr. 1757. On the accession of George III, he attached himself to Bute. At the general election of 1761, the compromise between the Duke of Marlborough and the Oxfordshire Tories deprived Turner of his seat for the county, but at the request of George III he was taken care of by Newcastle: nominated for Penryn on the Falmouth interest, he was returned after a contest. Sir Edward Turner did not receive Newcastle’s whip for the opening of the new Parliament—obviously, Newcastle counted him as a follower of Bute, as he appears in Bute’s list of December 1761. 

He is on Fox’s list of Members in favour of the peace preliminaries. Classed by Jenkinson in the autumn of 1763 as ‘pro’, Turner supported the Grenville Administration, and, although sitting for a west country constituency, voted with them against the repeal of the cider duty. Rockingham in July 1765 classed him as an opponent, and he voted against the repeal of the Stamp Act. He wrote to his friend Sanderson Miller, on 18 Jan. 1766: “Mr Pitt’s opinion, even Mr Pitt’s opinion, that Great Britain hath no right to tax the colonies, cannot convince me or many others of inferior, common, and unrefined understandings. If that right be given up (but I think it impossible) goodbye America!”. Turner was a rich man, a large investor in Government stock, and had one of the biggest holdings in East India stock: in 1763 its value was £28,500. He was an energetic magistrate and became unpopular in Oxfordshire because of his activity in stamping out cattle disease. His only speeches from 1761-8 were on an enclosure bill, 1 Mar. 1762, and on a bill to enlarge the powers of justices of the peace, 27 Apr. 1762. Turner did not defend the Oxfordshire seat in the 1761 General Election. Instead, he successfully stood for Penryn in Cornwall. In 1764, he purchased the manor of Wendlebury, Oxfordshire from the trustees of the 3rd Earl of Abingdon. 

Monument to Sir Edward Turner and Cassandra Turner in Bicester Church

Sir Edward died in 1766 while still an MP. On 26 Oct. 1766, George Grenville wrote to Charles Jenkinson: “You will be sorry to receive the melancholy account which I must give you of our friend Sir Edward Turner. He was seized on Saturday last with a severe stroke of the palsy whilst he was at Bicester to prevent disorders and lower the price of bread on behalf of the poor ... I had seen him perfectly well a little while ago, and he sent to me two days before to know whether the report was true that no business was to be entered upon in Parliament before Christmas except what relates to the corn.” Turner died on 31 Oct. 1766. Sir Edward died on the 31st of October 1766. He suffered a stroke at the age of 47 while signing papers in his judicial capacity at his home in Ambrosden., he recovered so much that that he was able to examine his youngest sons (John Turner afterwards Dryden) critically in a classic author that very day, however within a few hours after a second stroke he died. He was buried in his father's vault in Bicester Church. Lady Turner lived to see the marriage of their eldest daughter, Elizabeth to Major General Thomas Twistleton who became the 13‘h Lord Saye and Sele in 1767, but she died three years later at Sunbury-on-Thames. The Turners are remembered today by a splendid monument in St Edburg’s Church, Bicester, erected by their five children: Sir Gregory, William, John, Elizabeth and Cassandra. 

The estate and baronetcy duly passed to Sir Gregory who, like his father when he assumed the title, was only 18 at the time. One is left wondering what Sir Edward might have achieved. He was regarded in the highest esteem by his colleagues and friends who had cause to respect his wit and intellect, and in subsequent letters to Miller describe him as a ‘worthy’ man. His ambition as a politician never seems to have overtaken his sanity: he was resolute on issues like the eradication of cattle plague and had his father’s financial acumen for the purchase of land, He advocated a provident financial policy for government expenditure and the management of his estate but his letters rarely indicate political fervour over any issue. There is too a clear-thinking legal brain at work revealed in his penchant for gentle provocation and the art of logical absurdity. Were he alive today he might have discovered a niche for his literary talent alongside Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. 

Here is a playful example: Bath, October 10th I763 

DEAR SIR - Upon the supposed condition that you will answer me by the Return of the Post. l snatch my Pen to write to you - nothing. If it were not for this invariable resolution, I should enjoy real satisfaction on assuring you that - I am, dear Sir, Your faithful affectionate Servant. Above all, the letters, written informally to a lifelong friend, portray an energetic man of lively wit and a truly eloquent correspondent - the epitome of an age of Enlightenment. 

Lady Turner moved to a fine house in Sunbury shortly after Sir Gregory died. She lived there for four years and died from Cancer at her childhood home of Adelstrop surrounded by her family in 1770.  For her last fortnight she was attended only by her youngest daughter  Cassandra and her beloved sister Elizabeth Leigh, she never complained. The morning of her death she was dressed as usual and breakfasted with her two companions and later lay down on a couch and was read to by them, when the bell rang for dinner she made a slight excuse for not going down and dozed apparently till bedtime, when her maid only attending to her to bed (according to custom) upon first lying down she bid her open the window and in a moment after that she died. A Further note says  "Alas poo Ambrosden  House- it may be sung- "The grass now grows where Troy Town Stood" for altho its improvements cost £40,000 teh present owner (Sir Gregory Page-Turner) disliked indeed from childhood, the place and wishing to fix his family in a far more delectable country, levelled Ambrosden with the ground, and equally disliking his superb villa in Blackheath (Wricklemarsh)  he parted with that and now settled in Battlesden house in Befordshire.

Lady Turner by Penelope Carwardine (c.1730-c.1801), circa 1772

The children of Sir Edward and Lady Cassandra Turner :

                                   

Cassandra , John and Gregory Turner                                Elizabeth Turner , Late Saye and Sele

Sir Gregory 1748-1805, eldest son and 3" Bt. Of Ambrosden, was educated at Eton and Hertford College, Oxford. 1765 admitted to Lincoln's Inn. In June 1766 Gregory entered Hertford College Oxford, but losing his father in the same year he did not take his degree. On his father’s death in 1766, he travelled in Europe for three years, visiting Dijon, Paris Rome and stayed with the Grand Duke of Tuscany, at which time Ambrosden House was ‘ unoccupied On return, he lived at the House for seven years until 1775 when he inherited the vast fortunes and ‘estates of his great uncle, Sir Gregory Page 2nd Bt and last Baronet of Wricklemarsh, Kent, taking the arms and assuming the additional surname of Page by royal warrant. ' It was at this time, Dunkin tells us, that he found the House " too large, and determined upon pulling down that part,‘which his father had erected beyond the ancient mansion of the Glynnes, which he did m 1776, making the rest so unshapely that the following year he demolished the remainder of the building. This tends to confirm that part of the Glynne mansion had survived Sir Edward‘s rebuilding programme. During the next two years, the stone was sold off; probably the fine two-storey former post office building on the corner of Arncott Lane was built from this stone. In 1780 Sir Gregory inherited Battlesden Park, Beds on the death of his great aunt and moved there. He was appointed High Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1783 and elected MP for Thirsk, Yorks. in 1784. The following year he married Frances Howell, daughter of Joseph Howell of Wisbech, Cambs. Like his father before him, he was known for his ready and flowing wit and he had a taste for fine clothes and extravagant living. In 1805 he bought a work by the great Italian Renaissance painter, Titian -Perseus and Andromeda, now part of the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square, London. Politically. When representing his farming constituents in Yorkshire he strongly opposed the Sheep Tax Bill in the House of Commons and is remembered also for his efforts for bettering the condition of the poor. At his death in 1805 he is said to have left funded property to the value of £300 000 and a rent roll of £24 000. 

              

          William Turner 1750-1819

William (1750-1819) was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford (B.A.1767). He married leaving issue (daughters). admitted to Lincoln's Inn Dec 1775. 

John (1752-97) was educated at Harrow, admitted to Lincoln Inn Dec 1775, married Elizabeth Dryden of Canons Ashby Northants and took the name and arms of Dryden in 1791. He was appointed the Sheriff of Northampton in 1792, knighted in 1793 and became the first baronet of Canons Ashby (now National Trust) in 1795. 

Elizabeth (1740-18l6), the eldest daughter, married Captain Thomas Twistleton, the second of seven brothers 'in 1767, In 1762 he was present at the Battle of Bruckemuhle against the Franco-Austrian army (Seven Years War) where his elder brother, John, a Lt Col. in the ‘ Coldstream Guards was killed. In 1780 he was involved in defending the Bank of England during the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots, and was appointed Colonel of the 9th Foot in 1781 and a Major General in 1782. in 1781 he became the 13th Lord Saye and Sale of Broughton Castle. Banbury, a moated manor house dating back to 1300 which. Shortly before he and his wife took up residence, had undergone some interior redecorations in the Gothic style. possibly the work of Sanderson Miller. Their son, Gregory, married the daughter of a wealthy merchant, Sampson Gideon, 1st Lord Eardley of Belvedere, Kent. The couple moved in 1819 to the more fashionable mansion, Belvedere Park overlooking the Thames estuary to the east of London, and their son, William Thomas, led a high social life as a member of the set surrounding the Prince Regent and the Count d’Orsay, Meanwhile, Broughton went into decline and in 1837 the bulk of its contents were disposed of in an eight-day sale. 

Cassandra  Lady Hawke nee Turner

Cassandra (1747-1813) married Martin Bladen, 2nd Lord Hawke, MP, in 1771. He was the son of Admiral, Sir Edward Hawke, K.G., who had won the vital battle against the French at Quiberon Bay (1759), was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty (1766-81) and created a baron in 1776, Cassandra wrote a novel, “Julia de Gramont”, published in two volumes in 1788, Sir Edward and Lady Turner had four other children. two boys named John and a girl, Mary, (b.1753) all dying in infancy, and Edward who died aged six in 1755.