MEMOIRS OF SIR EDMUND TURNOR, KNIGHT. IT has been justly observed that the lives of private men should only be published when their virtues are very shining, and their goodness so remarkable, that their example may be beneficial to mankind; in this class we may venture to place the subject of these memoirs. He was the youngest brother of Judge Turnor (see p. 12) and was born at Milton-Ernis, May 14, 1619. In his political character he was attached to the Crown, and was active in its service; when Bristol was taken by Prince Rupert, he was appointed Treasurer and Paymaster to the garrison there, and was made prisoner at the battle of Worcester, 1651, being then a Captain of Horse. As a reward for these services he was to have been a Knight of the Royal Oak; but that order not taking place, he was knighted in 1663, about which time he was a Commissioner of the Alienation Office, Surveyor General of the Out Ports, and one of the chief Farmers of the Customs. In 1654 he married Margaret daughter of Sir John Harrison of Balls Co. Herts, Knt. by whom he became possessed of the manor of StokeRochford in Lincolnshire, where he resided, and served the office of Sheriff of the county in 1681. Dame Margaret Turnor died July 30, 1679, leaving issue one son, John Turnor, Esq; who married Diana, only child of the Honourable Algernon *Preface to the Life of Bonnell. Cecil, son of William Earl of Salisbury; and one daughter, Elizabeth, married to Sir Justinian Isham, of Lamport, Bart. Sir Edmund Turnor died April 4, 1707, in the 88th year of his age, and was buried in the chancel of the church of Stoke, near to a monument which he had erected for his wife, and in part for himself, during his life-time. His charity and public spirit were exemplary, and several acts of his munificence remain the lasting monuments of his character. DONA DEI DEO was his favourite principle, and as he maintained that principle in his mind, he supported it in his practice: nor was he less fervent in his piety than beneficent in his charity. In respect to the place of his birth, he endowed the vicarage of Milton-Ernis, with the impropriate tithes, then let at £100 a year, and he rebuilt the vicarage house and offices there; and as Bishop Kennet* expresses himself," that his piety to the church might the better be consecrated by his charity to the poor," he erected an hospital for six poor persons, and endowed it with lands to the value of£ 20 a year. At Stoke-Rochford he founded another hospital, for the like number of poor persons; and at Wragby, in Lincolnshire, where he had purchased a considerable estate, he built an hospital and a chapel, settling on the same a clear annual rent of £100. Besides these evidences of his generosity and munificence, he enlarged the revenues of the four royal hospitals in London, by giving amongst them a sum in Exchequer bills, the interest of which amounted to £200 a year. On the new workhouse in Bishopsgate Street he settled £37. 15s. 6d. a year. As to prayer, his life was almost one continued act of devotion; and to enable him the more largely to relieve the wants of others by his occasional alms, which were very great, he denied himself many unnecessary enjoyments of this world; a sort of self-denial, no doubt, very acceptable to God, as well as beneficial to mankind+. Case of Impropriations p. 325. Sermon at the funeral of Sir E. Turnor, 8vo. by John Adamson. R Clamp Sculpt SIR JOHN PACKINGTON, From a Drawing in the Collection of Thomas Pennant Esq." taken from the Original Picture at Washwood, Worcestershire. The Petro794 by E&S Harding Pall Mall. j i. SIR JOHN PACKINGTON. THE annexed portrait of this worthy and gallant Knight is copied from a drawing in the second volume of Mr. Pennant's MS. Outlines of the Globe; see his Literary Life, P. 41. The drawing was made from the original at Westwood, the fine and antient family seat of Sir Herbert Packington, in Worcestershire. The following anecdotes are taken from the same curious work; and the proprietors of this Publication might be justly thought deficient in gratitude, did they not return their warmest thanks to Mr. Pennant for his frank permission to copy both the one and the other. A wager was laid in the days of Queen Elizabeth by Sir Johm Packington, commonly called Lusty Packington, that he would swim from the Bridge at Westminster, i. e. Whitehall Stairs, to that at Greenwich, for the sum of £3100; this shews that high wagering was not unknown in that age: but it was on manly occasions, worthy of an old Roman, dashing into the troubled Tiber. once, upon a raw and gusty day, "The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, 66 Leap in with me into this angry flood, "And swim to yonder point?-Upon the word, “And bade him follow: so, indeed, he did. “And stemming it with hearts of controversy." Shakspeare's Julius Cæsar. A. 1. S. 2. |