John TURNER b. 1800 Yorkshire, Engalnd d. 2 Mar 1883 Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England
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    John TURNER[1]

    Male 1800 - 1883  (83 years)


    Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All

    • Name John TURNER  [1
      Born 1800  Yorkshire, Engalnd Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
      Gender Male 
      Died 2 Mar 1883  Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
      Person ID I185  VANTYORKSHIRE01
      Last Modified 12 Nov 2014 

      Family Jane VANT,   b. 1813, Ripon, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 15 Mar 1887, Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 74 years)  [1
      Married Between Apr 1841 and Jun 1841  Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 3
      Notes 
      • Of Starbeck [1]
      Children 
       1. John Francis TURNER, (VANT),   b. 24 Jun 1840, Ripon, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Between Oct 1882 and Dec 1882, Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 42 years)
      Last Modified 12 Nov 2014 
      Family ID F58  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    • Notes 
      • John was born in 1800 in Yorkshire.

        In 1841 John married Jane Vant at Knaresborough. [Rumour has it that Jane was John Turner's servant and after their son was born John found that it would be cheaper to marry Jane than to provide for mother and son].

        In 1851 & 1861 John & Jane were living at Beech Cottage, Railway Station Road, Knaresborough with their son, John Francis Turner Vant who was born a year before they married which explains the Turner Vant Surname.

        In 1871 Jane and John were living alone at Beech Villa, Knaresborough Road, Knaresborough. It seems that John junior had built a house next door to Beech Villa and lived there for many years.

        In 1881 Jane was living at Beech Villa, Knaresborough. John was not at the address on Census night.

        John died on 2 March 1883 in Knaresborough.

        Probate Record Reads:
        TURNER John.
        Personal Estate £50,784 15s 10d
        29 November. The Will with a Codicil of John Turner late of Beech Villa or Cottage Starbeck near Harrogate in the County of York Gentleman who died 2 March 1883 at Harrogate was proved at the Principal Registry by John Ernest Priestley Turner of Merton College in the University of Oxford a Student in the said University the other Executor. Former Grant Principal Registry April 1883.

        The following was written about six years after John’s death.

        A YORKSHIRE MISER – THE MEANEST MAN IN YORKSHIRE

        The all absorbing influence which a greed for gold exerts over the lives of some men is aptly illustrated in the life story of one of Bradford’s former townsmen. To such an extent had the love of money obtained possession of his nature that he earned for himself a reputation almost equalling that of the celebrated Daniel Dancer. His name was John Turner, and while in business as a linen-draper in Bradford he occupied a shop next door to the old Bowling Green Hotel. There are but few remaining in that town to whom the name of this Turner will be familiar, as it is fully forty years since he left the place.
        John Turner was born at or in the neighbourhood of Ripon, his parents being small farmers who by dint of thrift and hard work had acquired money. Where he served his apprenticeship as a draper is a point we have not ascertained. He, However, came to Bradford as the assistant of a person named Sayer, who occupied a shop next to the Bowling Green Inn, and had also a business at Keighley. Not finding his Bradford business to answer, Sayer offered it to his assistant Turner who saw that in his own hands it could be made profitable, and as he had expectations of money from his family he made arrangements with them to advance him £1,000 wherewith to commence business for himself. ?The old Bowling Green has, of course, long ago disappeared, and of all the neighbouring buildings the front of the Sun Hotel, altered and disfigured, alone remains. The shop occupied by John Turner next to the Bowling Green Inn was afterwards occupied by “Jim” Ibbetson, the “people’s bookseller”.
        Turner, as a draper’s assistant, was one of the “swells of the period, and took great pride in adorning himself with rings, gold guards, and jewellery, having in this respect higher aspirations than drapers’ assistants usually entertain. From the moment of acquiring a business of his own, however, he disposed of all his finery, retaining only his watch and gold guard, which he carefully stored away, and he was never afterwards seen to wear a vestige of anything except the most needful apparel. The whole desire of his existence now was to make money, not to spend it, and he literally carried his life in his hands in order to achieve success. To this end he denied himself any gratification, and contributed nothing to that of others. Not being married, he engaged a housekeeper, and he had two apprentices bound to him with premiums. One of them still survives; and having amassed a handsome fortune in a neighbouring county, lives honoured and respected as a public benefactor. Turner’s shop was opened hours before ordinary tradesmen thought of beginning the business of teh day, and was only finally closed when the last inhabitant had gone to bed. Beginning the day frequently at four, five or six o’clock in the morning, his apprentices and himself continued in the shop until ten or twelve o’clock at night, and coaches that changed horses at the Bowling Green frequently brought travellers who found the accumulator hard at work at one o’clock in the morning. As for Turner, so firmly had he disciplined mind and body that for some years he took only a few hours for sleep amongst the piles of goods with which his place was packed from basement to attic. His journeys to Manchester he performed on foot, or occasionally got a lift in a carrier’s wagon, but whether he paid for the ride is doubtful, as parting with money was with him one of the unpardonable sins. He had, however, other resources for keeping up his stock of goods. In the days when “little makers” were numerous, and perhaps not so well off as operatives are nowadays, it was the custom for manufacturers to be their own weavers and their own salesmen, travelling the country with the produce if their wooden looms on their backs or on the backs of packhorses or asses. Turner, knowing from experience the chronic impecuniosity of many of these men, waited until they had travelled the country unsuccessfully with their “webs”, and then, rather than return home empty handed, they accepted prices from him which meant privation for many days to come. He had not been in business more than two years before he began to seek investments for his money, and among his first speculations was the purchase of a public-house in Kirkgate, Bradford. When he was declared the purchaser, remarks were openly indulged in to the effect that he would not be able to pay the deposit, but calling for the deeds, Turner not only paid the deposit but the remainder of the purchase money. The news of this, of course, soon spread, and much interest cantered upon the unpretending Bowling Green shop and its occupier. Day by day his business increased, and his shop seldom had its shutters closed except for a brief few hours during the night time. Health at last began to give way, and, somewhat reluctantly, Turner resolved upon disposing of his business. As it was known to be a prosperous one a customer was soon forthcoming, and on the day of the ninth anniversary of his commencing business he walked out of the shop the possessor of exactly £16,000. It would appear, however, that Turner’s successor was not equally fortunate, for he remained in the shop but a short time.
        In order to regain his failing health, Turner migrated to Starbeck, near Harrogate, where he bought Beech Grove House, near the North-Eastern line of railway. Here he lived in the most unpretending privacy, became a money-lender, and was sought after by persons who were in financial embarrassment. Harrogate – at that time an obscure village – was beginning to wake up to a sense of its future importance, and became to him a veritable El Dorado. Tradesmen in their winter difficulties, property owners with deeds to mortgage, sought him without ceasing. Notwithstanding the ever-recurring bankruptcies of his clients, he was never known to be entangled in a lawsuit. He simply held the pledges, and they could always be redeemed according to the stipulations. He adhered with almost unvarying strictness to the sweet simplicity of 5 per cent. Here, secluded in his own house, in the privacy of his own grounds, with re-established health, did the Bradford draper accumulate with greater eagerness than before. Nothing that would realise money escaped his cold gray eyes. Belated travellers and those up betimes encountered him on the highways gathering the refuse of the roads in his wheelbarrow, or picking up stones on the roadside, which, after being broken in sufficient quantities, he would dispose of as road metal. Having on one occasion a debtor at Ripon who was unable to pay him, he took as a security on account grindstone. Unlimbering it from the frame, he wheeled the stone before him to Starbeck, but unhappily, when within a short distance of his home, it broke in two, and there lay, until he returned with his wheelbarrow for the fragments. The ever-present companion of his daily journeys was a dark blue moreen bag, which a friendly lawyer may have discarded, and without which he was rarely seen abroad. No trifle was too inconsiderable to find a home within it; even a stray feather from a fowl by the wayside would be carefully picked up and added to the stock previously gathered. Bit of old iron, stray nails, rags of woollen, cotton, or linen were commodities much too valuable to be left behind. Old Boots, shoes, and bits of leather were pounced upon, and disposed of for what they would realise at the hands of some economical cobbler, or when too valueless for his uses they were hoarded yet a little longer until the whole could be profitably disposed of to the manufacturer of glue. He was always on the spot when his rents were due, and if the sum was not promptly paid a distraint might immediately be looked for. He frequently came over to Bradford rent collecting, and always walked to and from his destination. On one occasion a person met him walking over Rombards Moor barefooted, with his shoes slung over his shoulders to save the leather. His journeys to Bradford he accomplished without spending a penny, as he carried his food in his pocket. Turner’s domestic arrangements were conducted upon an equally economical scale. Although he had now a wife and a son, he was not backward in stating that his domestic expenses did not exceed £20 per annum. Fire was never used in his house except for cooking, and when he could not pick up coal sufficient to supply that requirement he went out into the hedgerows for timber. On returning home from his errands he always divested himself of the suit with which he went abroad and donned a home suit composed of hundreds of patches of all sizes of material, from about one inch to four inches square. The house nearest to that in which he resided became his property before it was completed, owing to the inability of the builder to keep up his payments, and Turner took up his abode there, but the building remained uncompleted until his death, a great mound of stones and rubbish remaining in front which on no account would he have disturbed.
        After pursuing his hobby to the end, John Turner died at Harrogate about six years ago, in the 81st year of his age. His worldly gains had during his lifetime formed the subject iof considerable speculation, many estimating them at a large amount. It appears, however, that, owing to the depreciation in the value of property in Harrogate, the worth of his estate at the time of his decease did not exceed a hundred thousand pounds. From his point of view, the accumulation of even that amount of “filthy lucre” might have been worth all the energies of a life exceeding by ten years the allotted span. The above brief sketch of the miser’s career may enable others to form a different estimate.
        [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

    • Sources 
      1. [S1] YORK_25.TXT.

      2. [S10] Ancestry BMD.

      3. [S54] VANT ONS BMDs.

      4. [S6] 1841 Census Image.

      5. [S7] 1851 Census Image.

      6. [S14] 1861 Census Image.

      7. [S15] 1871 Census Image.

      8. [S5] 1881 Census Image.

      9. [S53] Ancestry probate index.