Person Sheet


Name Capt. *Nathaniel TURNER, 10G Grandfather
Birth 1600, England
Death Jan 1646, 1646 in Lamberton Ship that was lost at sea. See notes for the poem Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about "The Phantom Ship".
Occupation CLICK NAME FOR NOTES
Spouses:
1 *Margaret LEACHLAND, 10G Grandmother
Birth Jan 1602, England
Death by 1662, Connecticut
Occupation CLICK NAME FOR NOTES
Children: *Mary (?-1704)
Isaac
Rebecca
Notes for Capt. *Nathaniel TURNER
76Founder of New Haven Colony. He was an original charter member of the ancient and honorable artillery company of Boston. He was the 12th signature on its roll.
He was one of the "godly company" who died on the Phantom ship.
316In New Haven, in 1645, was built an ocean worthy ship of 80 tons. To this point the Colony had but five small ships for coastal trade. This new craft was to sail directly to England. The Colony was no longer to use the Massachusetts Bay Colony as middle-man. The last resources of the Community were aboard the ship when it set sail in 1646 never to return. A year and a half went by and in the summer of 1647, after a thunder shower moved out over the harbor an apparition of the ship appeared. There seems to have been time for everyone to gather on the shore. They watched in amazement. It is recorded they Could recognize their friends on the deck. Then as the ship drew nearer the masts seemed to snap in an invisible wind, the passengers to pitch into the sea and the ship to capsize. Reverend Davenport explained that God had sent the ship to answer their prayers for an explanation of what had happened to their loved ones. H. W. Longfellow eulogized this revelation in his poem The Phantom Ship. The risks had been taken, all the grand plans had failed and the Colony was near collapse. Thus ended what might called New Haven's first maritime period.
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According to the website for New Haven, CT., the New Haven colonists wanted to establish direct trading with England. They filled a ship with produce and called it the "great shippe". It set sail in January of 1646 and was never heard from again.
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Stated in Families of Ancient New Haven, Vol. 1, pg. 238 is "Turner, Nathaniel ( - 1646); of Lynn, Mass., 1630, where he was constable, 1634; enlisted from Lynn; an original proprietor of New Haven, 1639; Captain (ranking officer) of New Haven train band, 1640; m _______; 6 children."
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about the ship on which Nathaniel Turner lost his life. The poem is entitled The Phantom Ship. The verses follow:

In Mather's Magnalia Christi, Of the old colonial time,
May be found in prose the legend, That is here set down in rhyme.

A ship sailed from New Haven, And the keen and frosty airs,
That filled her sails in parting, Were heavy with good men's prayers.

"Oh Lord! If it by thy pleasure" - Thus prayed the old divine -
"To bury our friends in the ocean, Take them, for they are thine!"

But Master Lamberton muttered, And under his breath said he,
"This ship is so crank and walty, I fear our grave she will be!"

And the ships that came from England, When the winter months were gone,
Brought no tidings of this vessel! Nor of Master Lamberton.

This put the people to praying, That the Lord would let them hear
What in His greater wisdom, He had done to friends so dear.

And at last our prayers were answered: It was in the month of June,
An hour before sunset, Of a windy afternoon.

When steadily steering landward, A ship was seen below,
And they knew it was Lamberton, Master, Who sailed so long ago.

On she came with a cloud of canvas, Right against the wind that blew,
Until the eye could distinguish, The faces of the crew.

Then fell her straining top mast, Hanging tangled in the shrouds,
And her sails were loosened and lifted, And blown away like clouds.

And the masts, with all their rigging, Fell slowly, one by one,
And the hulk dilated and vanished, As a sea-mist in the sun!

And the people who saw this marvel, Each said unto his friend,
That this was the mould of their vessel, And thus her tragic end.

And the pastor of the village, Gave thanks to God in Prayer,
That, to quiet their troubled spirits, He had sent this Ship of Air.
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317A request was made for Freeman status on 19 Oct 1630 and he was admitted 3 Jul 1632 as Mr. Nath: Turner. Positions he held were many including: Constable of Lynn, 4 September in 1632; Committee to set bounds between Charlestown and Cambridge, 7 November 1632 and 6 March 1632/3; Committee to lay out land for John Humphrey; Captain of military company at Lynn, 4 March 1633/4; Deputy to Massachusetts Bay General Court for Lynn, 14 May 1634, 4 March 1634/5, 6 May 1635, 2 September 1635, 3 March 1635/6, 25 May 1636; Committee to lay out fortifications, 3 September 1634; Committee to settle bounds between Boston and Charlestown, 4 March 1634/5; Appointed customs officer, 4 March 1634/5; Committee to establish bounds between Ipswich and Newbury, 6 May 1635; Committee to lay out farm for Mr. Dummer, 6 May 1635; Committee to establish bounds between Salem and Ipswich, and between Ipswich and Newbury, 3 March 1635/6; Magistrate for Salem court, 25 May 1636 and Committee to levy country rate, 25 May 1636.
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318Deputy, 29 October 1640, 25 March 1644, 19 August 1644, 31 March 1645, 22 October 1645; Deputy to the court of combination, 26 October 1643; Deputy to the magistrate in all courts, 25 October 1639; Committee (as "Captain Turner") to consider laying out lots for inheritance, 3 November 1639; Committee (as "Captain Turner") to treat with the "Hartfordeshire men about their lots," 3 November 1639; Arbiter, 3 April 1640, 7 September 1642; Viewer of lands, 1 May 1644; Committee regarding the mill, 21 October 1644; Captain of all martial affairs of the plantation, 1 September 1640; Captain Turner to order and appoint the general trainings (with the Governor), 30 March 1645. On 23 February 1645/6 it was discussed whether the "military affairs of the town may be comfortably carried on without a captain, or whether it were not convenient to choose a captain instead of Captain Turner, not knowing when he will return. After some debate, Mr. Malbon was chosen captain with liberty to resign his place to Captain Turner at his return.
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In regard to his estate, In the New Haven list of estates of about 1643 Captain Turner was credited with seven persons, an estate worth œ800, fifty-seven and a half acres in the first division, eleven and a half acres in the neck, forty-three and a half acres of meadow, one hundred seventy-four acres in the second division, and a yearly rate of œ3 6s. 6d.. About 1644/5 Captain Turner was granted the right to choose the location of his second division meadow "that he may the better attend the public service in his military office".
On 7 December 1647 On 7 December 1647 "Mrs. Turner delivered into the court an inventory of the estate left by her deceased husband, Mr. Nathaniel Turner, which was read and delivered to the secretary to be recorded" 319The estate totalled œ457 7s. 3d., including œ154 in real estate: "the house & lot & land at the town," œ44; and "the housing, land & fences at farm," œ110 . 318On that same day Mrs. Turner delivered into the court an inventory of the estate left by her deceased husband, Mr. Nathaniel Turner, which was read and delivered to the secretary to be recorded". The estate totalled œ457 7s. 3d., including œ154 in real estate: "the house & lot & land at the town," œ44; and "the housing, land & fences at farm," œ110.
Mrs. Turner stood before the court and declared that she "conceives her husband made a will and left all he had to her dispose, as two of her daughters can testify the same. Rebecka Turner saith, that when her father was to go away, her mother desired him to make a will, but he answered that he would make no will, but he judged her faithful and had found her faithful, therefore left all to her and wished her to be good to the children, and wished the children to bear witness. Abigaile Turner testifyeth the same".
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SOURCE: "History of Stamford, CT, from its settlement in 1641, to the present time ; Chap 6; Author: Huntington, E. B. (Elijah Baldwin), 1816-1877

"Let us now return after our details of the settlement here by the English, to see what we can learn about the aborigines whom they came to supplant. Our introduction to them shall be through such original records as are still within our reach.

"... The first document is a simple acknowledgement, over their own signatures, of the four original proprietors of the soil, that they had disposed of it, for an equivalent, to Capt. (BJ's note: Nathaniel) Turner; and it is probably the only proof preserved of the original grant by which the settlers came into possession of the territory."

The first document quoted is the "Acknowledgement of sale July 1, 1640". It states in part, "Bought of Ponus, sagamore of Toquams, and of Wascussne, sagamore of Shippan, by Mee, Nathaniel Turner, Of Quenepiocke (Quinnipiac), all the grounds that belongs to both the above said sagamores, except a piece of ground* which the above said sagamore of Toquams reserved for his and the rest of said Indians to plant on - all of which grounds being expressed by meadows, upland, grass, with teh rivers and trees; and in consideration hereof, I, the said Nathaniel Turner, amm to give and bring, or send, to the above said sagamores, within the space of one month, twelve coats, twelve howes, twelve hatchets, twelve glasses, twelve knives, four keettles, four fathom of white wampum: all of which lands bothe we, the said sagamores, do promise faithfully to perform, both for ourselves, heirs, executors, or assigns, and hereunto we have sett our marks in the presence of many of the said Indians, they fully consenting thereto." The chiefs then placed their marks representing their signatures on the document of sale.
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320The following is also from History of Lynn, MA," pg. 129: "The following epitaph was written to the memory of Capt. Turner:

"Deep in Atlantic cave his body sleeps,
While the dark sea its ceaseless motion keeps,
While phantom ships are wrecked along the shore,
To warn his friends that he will come no more!
But He who governs all with impulse free,
Can bring from Bashan and the deepest sea,
And when He calls our Turner must return,
Though now his ashes fill no sacred urn."

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