The Turpin Line: Oxfordshire, England, to Indiana

Bassingbourn Parish lies in the south-west corner of Oxfordshire, England (gray spot is city of Oxford).

My previous blog followed the German Utterback line from its arrival in Virginia in 1714 to Frances Utterback's 1834 marriage to Moses Turpin in Lawrence County, Indiana.  They were our 3rd great-grandparents on the Dyson side. This blog will uncover the Turpin line, beginning well before William Turpin's arrival in Maryland Colony in 1661at about age of 21 (some believe he was only 12).

William Turpin's origins may have been in Bassingbourn Parish in Oxfordshire. Being landowners who did not work with their hands, the Turpin family were styled as "gentlemen" by the 1560s. This title of "gentleman" as allowed in 16th century Britain is worth a read HERE

The Ichnield Way in Oxfordshire, a pre-Roman road

For an in-depth discussion of Bassingbourn Parish, go HERE, but don't feel you have to. 

The Turpin family in this parish rose to prosperity in the 15th century, but fell into poverty by the late17th century. Quoting from the same source. "A substantial estate belonged to the Turpin family, recorded at Bassingbourn from the 1470s. [They would have had tenant farmers on their land.] John Turpin left land there to his son William in 1501. William Turpin, recorded from 1535, was probably the esquire and lawyer who died in 1575, and his second wife Jane, the Mrs. Turpin who held 112 a[cres] of copyhold at Bassingbourn in the 1570s. When she died in 1597, that land passed to William's grandson Thomas Turpin (d. 1627), who left it with 30 a[cres] of freehold to his young grandson Edward Turpin (d. 1683). Edward left c. 170 a[cres] to be divided equally between his sons John and Thomas, who both died without issue in 1715. Their land, already heavily mortgaged in the 1690s, was mostly sold in 1706." (from same article as above).

Our immigrant William Turpin might have been the son of Edward's brother John, since he named his own first son John. Allegedly a branch of the Turpins involved itself in the maritime trade, some family members moving to Brentwood, England, in the London area. What we do know is that William arrived in Maryland Colony in 1661. The Maryland landholder who paid his passage, Luke Gardiner, was granted 50 acres for this transport. Young William would be granted his own 50 acres at the end of his agreed term of years of indenture to pay off his passage, during which time he hopefully learned about the tobacco industry, the foundation of Maryland Colony's prosperity. Unable to marry while indentured, he married Margarett Ivery (1654-1721) in January of 1668 where he settled in Somerset County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She may have been only 14, a daughter of the late Nicholas Ivery (settled in Northampton County, Virginia by 1652) and the late Olive Easton. Margarett and her younger sister Mary Ivery (b. 1656 in Masheponge, Accomac County, Virginia, below Somerset County) came to Maryland from Virginia around 1665 with a group of Virginian Anglicans, who were granted permission to emigrate north into Maryland by Charles Calvert, 3rd Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of Maryland Colony. William and Margarett had seven children; at least five reached adulthood.  William died in 1685. They were our 8th great-grandparents.

Somerset County, Maryland (originally a much larger county)

Their son Solomon Turpin (b. 1673- died after 1744), our 7th great-grandfather, was born in Manokin, Somerset County, Maryland. He married Elizabeth Beauchamp in 1695. Her father Edmund Beauchamp (1625-1691) was born in Northhamptonshire, England, but her mother Sarah Dixon (1653-1730) was born in Maryland.  Solomon and Elizabeth had five sons and six daughters, most living into adulthood.  There is a record of Solomon Turpin acquiring 90 acres called Wolf Pit in 1739, 25 acres called St. David's in 1741, and 50 acres called Bermudas in 1744, all in Dorchester County.

Dorchester County, Maryland

Solomon died after 1744, but before 1756. Maryland was becoming crowded and some of the Turpin family was on the move. 

Son Solomon Turpin, Jr., was born in Dorchester County on February 14, 1724. He probably emigrated after his father's death; sold what property he inherited - tobacco having depleted the soil - and moved with extended family members from Maryland across Virginia to the large expanse of recently-opened Augusta County, where he married Miriam Taylor (1730-1790) in 1749. They were our 6th great-grandparents. Originally, Augusta County was so vast, it had an indefinite western boundary. Most of what is now West Virginia as well as the whole of Kentucky were formed from it, and it also claimed the territory north and west of those areas, theoretically all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Map of Augusta County, 1738 - 1770. Note Virginia's capital, Williamsburg to the east and Lake Erie and Lake Michigan to the north.

They moved farther into the wilderness to Gap Valley in the Piedmont, where some of their children were born.

Gap Valley, now part of West Virginia

This area was detached from Augusta County to became a part of Greenbrier County in 1777 (incorporated into the new state of West Virginia in 1862). They were early settlers, white settlement in this area beginning about 1740.

The Turpins lived in the southeast corner of what is now Greenbrier County, West Virginia

Referred to as the "western waters" because the rivers flowed west instead of to the Atlantic, prior to the arrival of European settlers, Greenbrier County, like most of present-day West Virginia and Kentucky, was used as a hunting ground by the Shawnee and Cherokee Nations. This land, which they called Can-tuc-kee, was thought to be inhabited by ghosts of Azgens, a white people from an eastern sea who were said to have been killed off by the Shawnee's ancestors. According to the legend, the area was owned by the bones and ghosts of the Azgens, who would permit responsible hunting, but according to Black Fish, "we are never allowed to kill the game wantonly, and we are forbidden to settle in the country... If we did, these ghosts would rise from their caves and mounds and slay us, but they would set father against son and son against father and neighbor against neighbor and make them kill one another." Hunting parties were permitted to camp in the area, but permanent settlements east and south of the Spay-lay-we-theepi  (Ohio River) were forbidden. Later, as white settlement increased in western Virginia and then in Kentucky, the Shawnees brooded over their loss of game there and trouble would come.

Greenbrier River

From the time Solomon and Miriam settled in Gap Valley and then in 1774 in Second Creek Gap near the Greenbrier River - and well into the 1780s - there was alarm after alarm of Indian attacks, with families making hasty flights to nearby blockhouses.

Solomon and Miriam had perhaps as many as 14 children. Money not being readily available, Solomon, not the only settler listed as doing so, paid his 1768 county levy with a "wolf scalp." These settlers hated wolves for deprivations on sheep and calves; apparently their government already had placed a bounty on wolves. On at least two occasions,1763 and 1765, Solomon was paid debts owed him from deceased men's estates. Was it for the sale of horses or cattle? We don't know. 

In 1774 Solomon had 367 acres surveyed in Second Creek Gap, which, as stated earlier, became a part of Greenbrier County in 1777; later, in 1799, his section was broken off to become Monroe County, Virginia (West Virginia). He cultivated only small plots of this land. Not using any sort of fertilizer, his crops diminished the land's richness; when more mullein than grain grew, he simply cleared more land, leaving the worn-out pieces to lie fallow. 

Mullein will grow anywhere.

He had plenty of wood from the hardwood forests, but there were no saw mills, so everything made of wood was sawn and hewn by hand. He and his family lived in a log home. He raised flax and hemp for thread to weave their own linen and sturdier hemp britches; sheep for their wool for the warmer lindsey-woolsy (linen combined with wool) for winter. He probably sold some wool. His crops were mostly corn, maybe some barley, but probably not any wheat. The garden produced root vegetables and they had orchards, the fruit good for making brandy. In 1774, Solomon and a few other settlers on the Greenbrier River were ordered to stake out or "view the road" from Craig Mountain to Sweet Springs, the inhabitants being in need of a road. In 1777, some inhabitants in this new Greenbrier County, including Moses Turpin, one of Solomon's sons, signed a petition to the Speaker and members of the Honorable Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, asking that better titles to their lands be granted them. Another signer of this petition was Moses Higgenbotham, stepfather of Magdelene Black, whom Moses Turpin married in 1781. Moses Turpin (b. 1757 Gap Valley, Virginia - died 1816 Pulaski County, Kentucky) and Magdelene Black (b. 1760 in western Virginia - died after 1817 Pulaski County, Kentucky) were our 5th great-grandparents.

Monroe County, West Virginia. The Turpin holdings must have been on the Monroe - Greenbrier line.

 Magdelene's stepfather Moses Higgenbotham was recorded in the 1782 tax records for Greenbrier County as owning 13 head of horses and 130 head of cattle. He provided 150 pounds of bacon that year for the use of the Commonwealth of Virginia for the Revolutionary War.

I find no record of Moses Turpin or his brother Aaron serving in the American Revolution, but they may have served on the Virginia frontier with their brother Martin Turpin, where records were poorly kept. In order for Martin to receive a pension in1833, he was required to write down those officers he served under and where, what battles he participated in, and also to produce two signed witness statements detailing their knowledge of his service, plus a statement from his minister stating that he was an honest man. Unfortunately, after receiving his initial payment of $30.00 a year, Martin died in 1834 in Wayne County, Kentucky. He'd entered the service in 1777 in Greenbrier County, Virginia, under Captain Thomas Wright of Col. James Henderson's Regiment. Went to New River to protect the Virginia frontier, serving out his time (probably 6 months). In 1780 or 1781 he was drafted for a 6-month tour to go to Richmond in Thomas Wright's company. While on the march he enlisted in the Regular Army under Captain Matthew Clay. He served out his six months as "Bowman" [batman?] or waiting man, being stationed at the barracks and headquarters. He was "Kept or held at Powhatton" until discharged at the end of six months; then he returned to Col. Febiger's Regiment. 

Our direct ancestor Moses Turpin died in 1816, before pensions were being handed out; we don't know for certain whether he went for a soldier, but he didn't marry until 1781.

In honor of Martin Turpin of the Virginia Line and perhaps Moses and Aaron Turpin, too

The first census of the United States, taken in 1790, Greenbrier County, lists Miriam Turpin as a head of household, Solomon having died about 1778. Her sons Aaron, Martin and Moses are listed as heads of their own households. Aaron and Martin had already sold off their inheritance of land from Solomon in 1789 - Martin sold 147 acres and Aaron 159 acres.  Miriam disappears from the record after 1790. Possibly as early as 1791, but no later than 1800, Moses Turpin and his family removed from Virginia to Madison County, Kentucky. Turpins were on the move again. Throughout the 1790s there were Turpin marriages in Madison County.

Madison County, Kentucky

Brother Martin moved to Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1797. Aaron moved to Cumberland County, Kentucky by 1800. Male Turpins, probably cousins, were in Madison and other Kentucky counties. Virginia was being emptied of its farmers. This is no exaggeration. Historian David Hackett Fischer writes in Bound Away, Virginia and the Westward Movement, that ". . . a human deluge poured down the western rivers and along the Wilderness Road. One observer reported that 'one would think . . . that half Virginia intended for Kentuck.' Another Viginian wrote, 'People are running Mad for Kentucky Hereabouts!' . . . They came mainly from two regions of the state - the Valley and the piedmont, particularly the seed counties of Augusta and Albermarle." p155. Kentucky was admitted to the Union in 1792. "By 1800 Kentucky had 220,000 people, most of whom were Virginians or their offspring." Ibid.p. 158.  Our Turpins were nearly too late. Already by 1790 fewer than half the households of Kentucky owned their own land. People had come with nothing and found nothing to call their own. Land was only free as bounty to former Revolutionary War soldiers. Much of it had been granted to or bought up by speculators in great swathes for resale.

How did Moses Turpin and his family come into Kentucky from southwestern Virginia? Not by the Ohio River as the Utterbacks had, but likely through the Cumberland Gap on the Wilderness Road and then up to Boonesborough in Madison County, Kentucky. 

Cumberland Gap in winter

Wilderness Road through Cumberland Gap to Boonesborough, Madison County, Kentucky

In the 1800 census for Kentucky, fully 18 Turpins were heads of households in various counties. 

Moses Turpin had three sons and three daughters, including son Moses, Jr. (1782-1838), our 4th great-grandfather, who married Jane Stephenson (1779-1830) in 1800 in Madison County.  Martin Turpin had moved directly from Virginia down to Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1799, where he received a 200-acre land grant on the Cumberland River because of his military service. Brother Aaron also received 200 acres there, most likely for military service that I find no record for. When Moses senior moved form Madison County with his family, including Moses Jr. and wife Jane, to Pulaski County in 1808, he most likely paid for his 79 acres on the Cumberland River.

Pulaski County, Kentucky

We gain some insight into Moses Turpin's life and hard work from his Last Will and Testament, Pulaski County, Kentucky; 1816; Probate Clerk; Vol 1, Page 236-7:
 
In the name of God Amen, I Moses Turpin of the County of Pulaski and state of Kentucky being in a low state of health but of sound mind do make this my last will and testament and bequeath as follows: After all my just debts and funeral charges are paid, I bequeath to my wife Magdalene the tract of land that I now live on containing one hundred and sixty acres; also a tract adjoining this containing eighty acres to have during her natural life; also to have three head of horses at her choice of the stock; also three cows and calves; also all my stock of hogs; also all my _____ furniture; also all my debts that are due to me except a debt on William Hays and a debt on William Davis; to have the above property to dispose of as she may see proper; also I do bequeath the above mentioned land to my three sons Moses Turpin, Solomon Turpin and Samuel Turpin at the death of my wife; the said to be divided in five shares; Moses to have one share, Solomon two shares and Samuel two shares; also I do bequeath to my two daughters Mariam Roberts and Delilah Turpin, a track of land adjoining Robert Tates containing eighty acres, the said land to be sold and equally divided between them; also I do bequeath to my two daughters Polly Long and Mariam Roberts two judgements against William Hays to be equally divided between them; also I do bequeath to my daughter Delilah Turpin a debt of fifty one dollars on William Davis and Gideon Roberts to be collected and paid on use until she comes of age; also I do bequeath Agness Hart one pacing sorrel horse; also I do bequeath to my daughter Delilah Turpin one bay horse called Rainbow; also after my wife takes her three choices of the horses the next choice to be sold and the money to be put on use until my grandson Henry Turpin comes of age, then to be for him......... Magdalene Turpin, I do appoint my wife Magdalene Turpin and Samuel Turpin executors. Signed sealed in the presence of Robert Tate, Samuel Tate, John Short, Reubin Short. Presented at the County Court held for Pulaski County Court, 23 December 1816. Magdalene survived Moses and appears in the 1820 census, but not in the 1830 census.
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An auction of Moses' estate was held in March of 1817, at which time, among other items, the 80 acres left to the two daughters sold for $90.00.  Inventory of Moses Turpin's estate: Two mares, three fillies, 2 geldings; 21 head of sheep; 6 cows and 6 calves, 1 steer; 19 hogs, 4 sows, 1 barrow; 19 geese and 10 ducks [their feathers used to make feather beds]. Two pair harnesses, 1 double tree, 1 single tree (a bar used to balance the pull of a draft horse) ; 2 plows; 2 weeding hoes and sprouting hoes; 1 scythe and cradle; 1 reap hook; 3 ovens [Dutch ovens], 1 skillet, 1 pot, 2 pair pot hooks; 1 iron wedge; 1 flat iron; sheep shears; 1 auger drawing knife, 1 curry comb; 1 tomahawk; 1 hand saw; 3 bells, 1 collar and buckle; 1 long chain; 1 hackle; 1 kettle and hook; 1 man saddle; 1 woman saddle; 2 hogsheads, 1 pickling tub, 2 washtubs, 1 milk tub; 3 churns, 1 half-barrel; 20 pewter plates, 6 small basins, 2 large basins, 2 dishes, 4 earthen crocks, 1 pickling crock, 3 jugs, 1 pitcher, 2 bowls; knives and forks, 13 pewter spoons; coffee pot with cups; 2 quart cups; strainer and other tinware and candlesticks. One bookcase and books; 1 dining table; 2 spinning wheels; 1 chest. Four feather beds; 4 bedsteads. Thirteen yards of fulled linsey [in this case, so far south, a combination of cotton warp and woolen weft, also called lindsey-woolsy]. One small chest; 3 deer skins; 1 grindstone; 3 pair of cords [probably for the weaving beneath the feather beds]. Two counterpanes [quilts], 2 sheets; 22 1/2 yards of lindsey; 40 cards of double yarn; 40 cards of double cotton thread. One razor. Twenty-one big spools; 3 yards of blue lining (?). Debts [owed the deceased].

I don't understand why they had no chickens.

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