TURNER, Cholmley (1685-1757), of Kirkleatham, Yorks.

Turner was a wealthy country gentleman, with properties in Northallerton and along Tees side, as well as lead mining interests in the North Riding.C. Collyer, ‘The Yorks, election of 1734’. Proc. Leeds Philosophical Soc. vii. 55-56. Returned as a Whig for Northallerton in 1715, he followed Walpole into opposition in 1717, voting against the Government in all recorded divisions. He did not stand in 1722, but was successful in 1726 at a by-election for Yorkshire, which he thenceforth represented, with one short interruption, for the rest of his parliamentary career. In the 1727 Parliament he took a very independent line, speaking on the opposition side in a debate on foreign affairs, 5 Feb. 1729,HMC Egmont Diary, iii. 345. and voting against the Government on the Hessians in 1730, the army in 1732, and the excise bill in 1733, but for them on the repeal of the Septennial Act in 1734. Complaining that ‘he was so wrong-headed there was no holding him’, Walpole wondered whether he would like a red ribbon.HMC Carlisle, 127. He announced his intention of not standing in 1734 but changed his mind on receiving an invitation from the Whig county meeting at York, which he accepted, the 3rd Earl of Carlisle told Walpole, ‘although he had writ to me the day before that he desired not to stand’.8 Nov. [1733], Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss. Re-elected after a hard contest, he voted with the Government on the navy estimates in February 1735, when it was ‘thought the petition which is lodged against [him] will make him do right while that is depending’.HMC Carlisle, 151. He also voted for the Spanish convention in 1739. He refused to stand in 1741 but when a by-election occurred he was induced to submit himself to ‘the command of the gentlemen’, as expressed by his unanimous adoption at another general Whig meeting, ‘the most numerous that has been seen a great while’.C. Collyer, ‘The Yorks. election of 1741’. Proc. Leeds Philosophical Soc. vii. 141. Returned after a contest, he was on the court list for the secret committee of inquiry into Walpole’s Administration, to which he was elected, never attending its meetings.Walpole to Mann, 1 and 22 Apr. 1742. His only vote in this Parliament was for the Hanoverians in 1744. In 1747 he finally retired, giving as his reason that there were ‘so many noblemen’ who were ‘thought to have the interest and direction of this county’.C. Collyer, ‘The Rockinghams Yorks. politics 1742-61’, Thoresby Misc. xli. 358. On his retirement he received a secret service pension of £500 a year from Pelham, which was not renewed when Newcastle succeeded to the Treasury.Add. 33038, f. 415. He died 9 May 1757.