Turner
In Memory of John, son of John and Agnes Turner, who died May 12, 1860, aged 9 years and 7 mo’s
Agnes, the first child of John and Agnes Turner died in infancy. She also is buried here, her grave unmarked.
John Turner was a son of George Hutchinson Turner and his wife, Catherine Russell. He was a grandson of Holden Turner and Jennet Hutchinson, and of Jacob and Elizabeth Russell, Loyalists who settled in Kingsclear.
Holden Turner was born about 1761 in Ayr, Scotland, and came to New Brunswick in 1784. He was a member of St. Paul’s Church in 1843. Holden and Jennet had ten children. Uncles of John Turner operated the Turner American Express out of Saint John and were prosperous. John Turner drove the stage coach from Fredericton to St. Andrews and later the Woodstock stage.
Agnes was a daughter of Ebenezer Nicholson, who came to New Brunswick with his wife and children from Dumfries and settled in the parish of Douglas. The family attended the old Kirk. Another daughter, Sarah, married Robert Irwin, whose sister Margaret married Robert Colwell. Hugh Irwin, brother of Robert, married Matilda, the sister of William Grieves. This explains the proximity of the graves of the Turner, Irwin, Colwell, and Grieves families.
Buried here are Agnes and John, the first two children of John and Agnes Turner. The eldest six of John’s ten children were born in Fredericton. After 1860, the family apparently moved about and in 1865 were in Rivière-du-Loup. Agnes Turner died there in 1896, and John died in Winnipeg in 1911.
Margery Elizabeth, 1851-1854, child of J.S. and Susan Turner.
This inscription is on the reverse of the large Sampson stone.
Joshua S. Turner, a grandson of Holden Turner, had married Susan Johnson in 1851. She was a daughter of Margery Elizabeth Johnson, as was Jane, wife of Thomas Sampson, whose son Charles was the Fredericton agent for the Turner Express. Margery Johnson’s will in 1873 mentions a widowed Jane Sampson. She kept a grocery store in Fredericton, as did Joshua Turner in Saint John. He was also listed as a Commission Merchant and a ship owner/broker. The Saint John Directory lists him living at 130 Charlotte Street.
Wilmot Church records, Fredericton, NB:
Turner, Henry, son of Susan and Joshua Turner, merchant of Fredericton, b. 27 Oct. 1851, bapt. 14 March 1852.
Turner, Margery Elizabeth b. July 13, 1853, bapt. 16 Aug. 1854. Daughter of Joshua and Susan.
Joshua Sylvester, b. 14 May 1867 bapt. 15 Sept 1867, son of Joshua and Susan, green grocer of St. John.
