Humphrey Turner

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ⁶¹⁵
Humphrey Turner was on the 1633 Freeman list, and on 18 May 1633, he sold his right to a piece of land near the Plymouth fort to Josias Winslow. This was likely the time that he moved to Scituate. He was one of the nine men there when Rev. Lothrop first arrived in Sep 1634.

Humphrey Turner was one of the original members of the church which Lothrop had founded , 8 Jan 1635. Turner's daughter, Mary was even baptized at Lothrops house, 25 Jan 1635. His wife joined the church on 10 Jan 1635/36. Unlike other members of Lothrop's church, he did not move to Barnstable.

Humphrey Turner was elected a deputy for Scituate, and he often served on juries. He was a tanner by trade. He made his will, 28 Feb 1669, which was probated 5 Jun 1673. He named both his younger and older sons John, as well as sons Joseph, Daniel, Nathaniel and Thomas Turner in his will. His daughter that he named in the will were Mary Parker & Lydia Doughty. The grandchildren he named were Humphrey Turner, Mary Doughty, the children of his oldest son John named were Jonathan, Joseph, & Ezekiel Turner, and the daughter of his son Nathaniel, Abigail Turner.

~Plymouth Colony Its History & People, pp. 364-365

• Background Information. ⁶¹⁴
We know that Humphrey and his wife were still in England in 1630 because there is a baptismal record for his daughter Lydia with the date of 1630, in Little Baddow, Essex. This both also is evidence that it is very likely that he came from Essex and that his wife was Lydia Gaymer of the parish of Terling.

Other records found in the parishes close to Little Baddow, Essex, England are:
Parish of Terling, Essex:
Lydia Gaymer, the daughter of Richarde Gaymer was baptized the xviiith day of May 1602.
Parish of Sandon, Essex:
Marriages in 1618, Humphry Turner and Lidda Gamar, Oct 24
Parish of Terling, Essex:
Baptized 24 Mar 1621, John, the soone of Humfry Turner and Lydia his wife
Parish of Little Baddow, Essex:
Baptized 17 Feb 1629, Lydia, the daughter of Humphry Turner

Terling is about five miles north of Little Baddow and Sandon is two miles south.

The author notes that both the names Humphrey as a first name and Gaymer as a surname were not very common in England, and that our Lydia Gaymer and Humphrey Turner are the only people of those named found in England for that time. Further evidence given by Vernon Dow Turner to connect Humphrey Turner to Essex, England is that Little Baddow, Essex, England had flourished as an area of the tanning industry, which was the same trade that Humphrey engaged in.

The author gives possible parents for Humphrey as a John Turner and Joan Lily who had seven children baptized in Terling near the time Humphrey was likely born. These children have names, John, Joseph, Nathaniel and Thomas, that Humphrey and Lydia gave to their own children. So far, records of Humphrey's birth information have not been found, so we can not know for sure that these were his parents. Considering the fact that Humphrey named two of his son's John, I personally think that there is an excellent possibility that John and Joan Turner of Terling were Humphrey's parents.

~"Lydia Gaymer, The Wife of Humphrey Turner of Scituate," NEHGR, Jan. 1997, pp. 286, 290

• Dates & Events. ⁴⁴⁶
From the entry for Humphrey Turner in NEHGS's The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III:

Humphrey was listed a a freeman of Plymouth 1 Jan 16 32/33.
Humphrey signed his deed up to 1 Nov 1672 with "his mark."
Humphrey was listed for Scituate, as a man able to bear arms on the Plymouth 1643 list.
Humphrey was one of several freemen of Scituate on 2 Jan 1637/38 to complain that their proportions of land were too small that they could not make a living off the land. The court of assistants granted them more land in the upland and neck between the North and South Rivers as well as the meadow between the rivers from North River to Beaver Pond, providing they make it a township and live on the land.
Humphrey deeded to his sons Joseph and Nathaniel, 1 Oct 1668, with the consent of his wife Lydia, twenty-seven acres of upland at the Third Cliff, with housing and thirty acres of marsh meadow adjoining. He also deeded, 1 Nov 1672, all right to undivided land in Scituate to his son Joseph.

Humphrey married Lydia Gamyer, daughter of Richard Gamyer and Margaret Mason, 24 Oct 1618 in Sandon, Essex, England.⁶¹⁴ (Lydia Gamyer was baptized on 18 May 1602 in Terling, Essex, England ⁶¹⁴ and died in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, British American Colonies.)