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Miss Caroline TURNER (1804–1871)
St Paul section: Row 11, Grave 13 [St Paul ref. K8]

Caroline Turner was born in Lambeth, Surrey in 1804 and baptised at St Mary's Church there on 26 February. She was the daughter of George Mathias Turner and his wife Frances, who had the following children:

• Sarah Amelia Turner (born on 23 May 1802 and baptised at St Nicholas's Church, Brighton on 20 September)
• Thomas Melton Turner (probably born in 1803/4 and baptised at St Mary's Church, Lambeth on 26 February 1805 at the same time as his younger sister Caroline)
• Caroline Turner (born in Lambeth, Surrey in 1804 and baptised at St Mary's Church there on 26 February 1805)
• Celia (or Cecilia) Henrietta Turner (born on 8 January 1806 but not baptised at St Mary's Church there until 20 April 1809, together with her next two siblings)
• Christiana Turner (born in Lambeth on 27 March 1807 but not baptised at St Mary's Church there until 20 April 1809)
• Richard Valentine Turner (born in Lambeth on 15 February 1809 and baptised at St Mary's Church there on 20 April)
• Septimus Turner (born on 10 December 1810 but not baptised at St Nicholas's Church, Brighton until 2 September 1814)

On 24 April 1813 at St Mary's Church, Lambeth, Caroline's sister Maria Turner married John Rusher Eaton, and their son John Richard Turner Eaton was baptised at Christ Church, Southwark on 1 March 1825.

Caroline's father George Mathias Turner, who was a stockbroker, died at Lambeth Green at the age of 77 on 18 July 1835, and his will is available in the National Archives.

At the time of the 1841 Caroline (36) and her brother Richard (32), who was also a stockbroker, were living at Kennington Green, Lambeth with the army major William Turner (50), who may have been their uncle. Also in the household were Annette Taylor (40), presumably William's wife, and their children Caroline (12), Ellen (9), and William (4). The household had four servants.

The first connection that the Turner family appears to have had with Oxford was in 1847, when Caroline's Turner's nephew, the Revd John Richard Turner Eaton, was elected to a Fellowship of Merton College.

At the time of the 1851 census Caroline Turner (46), described as an annuitant, was living at 8 Lambeth Terrace. She was the head of the household, and living with her were her sister Miss Cecilia Turner (44), also an annuitant, and two of their nieces: Caroline Wood (17), who was born in Lambeth, and Eliza Wood (15), who was born in Mitcham, Surrey.

In 1861 Caroline Turner (55) was the head of a household at Bussage in Stroud, Gloucestershire. She was described as a lady and fundholder, and also as someone who assisted in a penitentiary. Her niece Mary Caroline Turner (29) was living with her, and they had two servants.

On 5 July 1865 at St John the Baptist Church (Merton College Chapel), Oxford, Caroline's nephew John Richard Turner Eaton married Julia Mary Sargent, the daughter of William Sargent, Esq.

By the time of the 1871 census Caroline (67) had moved to Oxford. She was described as a gentlewoman and was living without any family members at Blenheim Place (the south end of the Woodstock Road) in St Giles's parish. She had two female servants, aged 63 and 19: the elder one, Elizabeth King, had also been with her at her previous address in Stroud.

Caroline died in Oxford later that year. It is unclear why she was buried in the St Paul rather than the St Giles section of the cemetery:

† Miss Caroline Turner died at 7 Blenheim Place at the age of 67 on 17 November 1871 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 23 November (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul's Church).

Her death notice in Jackson's Oxford Journal read simply: “Nov. 17, at Blenheim-place, Oxford, aged 68 [sic], Caroline, daughter of the late George Mathias Turner, esq., of Lambeth-green, Surrey.”

Her effects came to under £5,000, and her executors were the Revd John Richard Turner Eaton of Lapworth Rectory near Birmingham, who was her sister's son, and the Revd Thomas Keble of Bussage, Gloucestershire.

In 1874 her nephew John Richard Turner Eaton (who had accepted the Merton College benefice of Lapworth near Birmingham in 1864) was appointed Whyte's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford. He died in Bournemouth at the age of 87 on 11 November 1911: see his obituary in The Times of 13 November 1911.