Thomas Turner (Son of William the Quaker)

Thomas was born in 1667 and died in 1774.  He married Susan Anthony in 1689. 

Thomas moved to Virginia and to Rowan Co, NC.  He had three sons at the time.  They were Edward, Roger, and Thomas.

Roger, Edward and Thomas lived with the Boones and Bryans until about 1734.  Then with Squire Boone and others went down  the Great Wagon Road, through the Shenandoah Valley to Morgan Bryan’s Quaker Settlement on Opequon Creek, Frederick Co, VA.

About 1754 they went to NC and settled in Bryan’s settlement which was made of : Morgan Bryan; Squire Boone; William and John Linville; George Farbush; James Hughes; James Carter; Roger, Edward, and Thomas Turner; most of whom were related to Morgan Bryan.

Thomas’s children married:

Roger Turner to Elizabeth Bryan

Edward Turner to Ann Kimbrough

Thomas to Mary Boone

Roger was our next direct line ancestor.

Members of the Bryan Settlement on the Yadkin River in North Carolina were Morgan Bryan, Squire Boone, Roger Turner, William Linville, John Linville, George Forbush, Samuel Davis, Edward Hughes and James Carter. Samuel Davis left in 1752. William and John Linville were killed by Indians in 1766. Roger Turner, Edward Turner and Thomas Turner owned 2000 acres of land on both sides of the Yadkin River by 1761, per Land Grants from Lord Granville of England (From Carolina Cradle Book). In Book B, Page 355, 1805 records in Fayette County, Kentucky, a bond signed by Catharine Turner, wife of Roger Turner, just deceased, names the children and heirs of Roger Turner, relinquishing rights to a tract of land sold from the estate. Among the heirs listed were Daniel Bryan and Elizabeth, his wife, last Elizabeth Turner. Catherine Turner’s Will was probated in 1807, in Fayette County, Kentucky and lists one of her daughters as Elizabeth Bryan and names Daniel Bryan as one of the Executors.

Exerpt taken from book: North Carolina Historical Commission

Editorial Compilation from Soelle Diary.

Visited Roger Turner, Jr.  His wife, who was a daughter of Mrs. Robert Elrod by her first marriage, had been in poor health for seven years.  Roger Turner, Sr. was the oldest man in the neighborhood; in 1773 Soelle notes that he was 84 years old, and blind.  Records in Rowan County show that Roger Turner, Sr. held his land under Grants from Lord Granville, dated 1755 and earlier; Roger Turner, Jr. secured a Grant from Granville in 1761.  The land seems to have been south of Deep Creek, on Turner’s Creek, some miles west of the Yadkin.  The Will of Roger Turner, SR. filed in Rowan County, is dated Feb. 2, 1775, and was probated at the November term of Court, 1778.  It mentions his wife, Elizabeth; sons Elias, Robert, Thomas, and Roger; daughters Hannah and Mary; and grandson Roger, son of Thomas.  Soelle’s Diary mentions that Roger Turner, Jr. and his wife have children.

“In the name of God, I Roger Turner, Senior,of Surry County, in the Province of North Carolina,…

Item, I will and bequeath unto my beloved sons, Elias and Robert Turner, my tract of land adjoining to the tract of land I now live on to be equally divided between them both. If Elias should die without a lawful wife or a lawful assignment to any person of his past, then Robert is  to have the whole tract and hold it by virtue of this will. I will and bequeath unto my two sons, Thomas and Roger, the sum of five shillings….. 

 I will and bequeath unto my two daughters, Hannah and Mary, the sum of five shillings. …

. I will and bequeath unto my  grandson Roger, son of Thomas, the sum of five pounds. Such to be paid to him by my executors when he comes to age twenty one years.

 I will and bequeath to my well beloved wife, Elizabeth,
all my stock, both horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, and at her decease to be at her own disposal and…..


this second day of February one thousand seven hundred and seventy five.
 his Roger X Turner Mark
In the presence of us: his James X Wilson mark    Jacob Spicer,     Evan Ellis
     North Carolina, Surry County,

    November Court 1778