Turner Family Papers

The Turner Family Papers are significant for the source material they provide on Quaker family life in Baltimore and the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the 19th century. The papers include extensive correspondence concerning the Indian Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting and records of goods sent to the Pawnee Agency in Nebraska; also included is a series of letters written during the Civil War.

The Turner ancestors claimed land in Calvert County in 1653 and were associated with the Colonial Government of Maryland. In 1690 they were members of the Third Haven Meeting. Later they owned land in Kent County and were ministers and elders in Cecil Monthly Meeting until it was laid down in 1952. Through marriage, they were related to Townsend, Bartlett, Corse (DeCourcy), Betterton, Rigbie, St. Clair and Yardley families. This collection centers around the family and descendants of Joseph Turner, Jr. (1790-1850) and his wife Rebecca (Sinclair) Turner (1787-1877), members of Baltimore Monthly Meeting, Western District. They raised eight children and had fifty-four grandchildren. Joseph left the family plantation near Still Pond, Kent County, Maryland, and became a lumber merchant in Baltimore. He served as Clerk of the Lombard Street Meeting. Rebecca was a recorded minister and traveled widely. She served on the Standing Committee on Indian Concern of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, the Friends Association in Aid of Freedmen, and on the first Board of Managers of Swarthmore College, 1862-1868. Among the correspondents are: Rachel and Caleb Barker; Deborah Bringhurst; Levi K. Brown; John Comly; Jane M. Edgar; Jacob M. Ellis; Benjamin Ferris; Benjamin Hallowell; Rachel Hicks; Phoebe H. Howell; Cornelia Janney; Samuel M. Janney; George M. Justice; Mary S. Lippincott; Harriet I. Moore; William D. Parrish; Rachel Price; Mary L. and Rush Roberts; William Stabler; P.E. Thomas; Lydia M. Thorne; Anne W. and Jacob M. Troth; Martha E. Tyson; E.H. Walker; Deborah J. Wharton; Amos and Caroline Willets; and James Wood and the families of Sinclairs, Townsends, Underhills and Yardleys.

The family had a keen interest in education and were associated with a variety of schools including: Alexandria Boarding School; Eaton Academy, Kennett Square; Fair Hill Boarding School, Sandy Spring; Friends Free School, Darby, Pa.; Friends Boarding School, Providence, RI; McKim's School, Baltimore; New England Yearly Meeting Boarding School; Sharon Boarding School, Darby, Pa.; Samuel Smiths Boarding School, Wilmington; Southern Boarding School, Smyrna, Del.; Springdale Boarding School, Loudon County, Va.; as well as Swarthmore College.