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The story about the three Turner brothers from Cornwall is a myth

Writer: Catherine Gauldin
Catherine Gauldin
Jun 6
5 min read

There is no historical evidence for a man named John Turner born ca. 1690 in Land’s End, Cornwall, who immigrated to Virginia, died in Caroline County in 1742, or fathered the biblical‑named brothers Shadrach Turner, Meshack Turner, and Abednego Turner. No colonial record—parish, land, probate, court, or vestry—places such a man in Caroline County. The “Cornwall Brothers” narrative is a modern online fabrication originating in unsourced user‑submitted trees on FamilySearch and Find a Grave.

1.       FamilySearch Tree (user‑submitted, no citations; contains impossibilities) (1)

2.       Find a Grave Memorial (user‑created, no historical documentation) (2)

 

These profiles contain impossibilities (including a burial in Pakistan!) and no citations to colonial documents. By contrast, the only documented early Turners associated with Shadrach and Meshack appear not in Caroline County but in Halifax County, decades later, and they are clearly local Virginia men, not immigrants from Cornwall.

 

Family Search has an online searchable database, and it is located “England, Cornwall Parish Registers, 1538–2010” and related collections.

 

FamilySearch hosts digitized images and transcriptions of many Cornwall and English parish registers. Searches of these collections show no Turner family with the claimed father “Richard Turner” and sons John, Richard, James, and Lewis born in the 1680–1700 period in Land’s End.  The earliest date for “John Turner” in this database is a burial in 1712 in Cornwall.  There are no matching Turner family in Land’s End; no cluster of brothers named John, Richard, James, and Lewis and no emigration records.

 

The following is presented as a source on the WikiTree bio: (1)

The Halifax County Episcopal Church Vestry Book (1752–1817) provides the strongest disproof of the Cornwall myth. It records Shadrack, Meshack, James, and John Turner as adult men performing processioning duties between 1755 and 1767, all in Halifax County—not Caroline, not Cornwall, and not as brothers of a John Turner born in England. These entries show them as independent landholders in specific Halifax neighborhoods: (2)

• 1755 – John Turner processioning land on Smith River (p. 20)

• 1758 – Shadrack Turner listed in the levy (p. 35)

• 1759–1760 – reference to Meshack Turner’s back line (p. 50)

• 1763 – Meshack and Shadrack each ordered to procession different land districts (pp. 69–70)

• 1767 – James Turner, gentleman, processioning lands between Difficult Creek and Blankes Ferry Road (p. 87)

 

These are four separate adult men, living in Halifax County at the same time, performing civic duties typical of local landowners. Nothing in these records suggests they were sons of a John Turner of Cornwall, and nothing ties them to Caroline County. Instead, the vestry book proves that the “Cornwall Brothers” story is genealogically impossible: the Halifax Turners were documented Virginians, not English immigrants, and they were not the sons or brothers of any John Turner born in Cornwall.

 

Summary of Sources

Halifax County Episcopal Church Vestry Book, 1752–1817 (2) 

Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah. Call No. FHL 30163.

• 1755 – John Turner processioning (p. 20)

• 1758 – Shadrack Turner in levy (p. 35)

• 1759–1760 – Meshack Turner’s back line (p. 50)

• 1763 – Meshack and Shadrack ordered to procession (pp. 69–70)

• 1767 – James Turner, gentleman, processioning (p. 87)

 

Like many other counties in Virginia, Caroline County suffered catastrophic loss of Colonial period records.  The strongest, most authoritative source proving this is the Library of Virginia’s official Lost Records List. This is the state’s own archival assessment of what survives—and what does not—for each Virginia county. Caroline County is one of the most severely affected counties in the Commonwealth.  This online resource is located at Library of Virginia. “Caroline County – Lost Records Localities Digital Collection.” Richmond, Virginia.

 

For the year 1742, all colonial‑era wills and probate records, all early deed books, all early court order books, all parish registers and most 18th century county-level records were destroyed.  The Library of Virginia explicitly classifies Caroline as a “Lost Records Locality,” meaning that the majority of its pre‑Civil War records no longer exist due to fires and other destruction.

 

What the Halifax Land Books & Tithables Show About the Turner Men

1. Shadrack Turner- He appears regularly in the 1750’s-1760’s tithables in the districts around Little Cherrystone Creek, Banister River and Staitstone Creek.  These locations match his 1763 processioning assignments in the Vestry Book, confirming he was a local landholder.

 

2. Meshack Turner – He appears in the late 1750’s-1760’s tithables, often adjacent to Shadrack.  His land is consistently described in relation to Straitstone Creek and Brook’s Ferry Road.  This aligns with the Vestry Book reference to his “back line.”

 

3. James Turner (Gent.) – He appears in the 1760’s-1770’s tithables in the district between Difficult Creek, Blankes Ferry Road and the Stanton River.  His designation as “gentleman” appears in both the Vestry Book and tax lists.

 

4. John Turner – He appears in the 1750’s tithables in the district around Smith River and Leatherwood.  This matches the 1755 processioning order with Daniel Ryon.

 

Why Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Gaulding, cannot be from the Halifax County Turner Family

The identity of Elizabeth Turner, wife of Samuel Gaulding, is established through Goochland County parish, land, and family‑cluster evidence, all of which place her firmly within the Turner family living in St. James Northam Parish, Goochland County, during the 1760s. The Douglas Register records Samuel and Elizabeth’s marriage in 1764 (2) and the baptisms of their daughters in 1765 and 1767, all within the same parish. The only Turner family living in this exact parish cluster at that time—and documented through tithables, land adjacency, and parish entries—is the family of Josias Turner of Goochland County. (3) He is Elizabeth’s probable father.  No Halifax County Turners appear in Goochland records, and no Halifax Turner is ever associated with St. James Northam Parish, where Samuel and Elizabeth demonstrably lived.

 

By contrast, the Halifax County Turners—Shadrack, Meshack, James, and John Turner—are documented exclusively in Halifax County between 1755 and 1767 in the Episcopal Church Vestry Book and in local land/tax records. These men lived along Straitstone Creek, Banister River, Difficult Creek, Smith River, and Leatherwood, more than 100 miles from Goochland, and appear as adult landholders long before Samuel and Elizabeth’s marriage. No Halifax Turner appears in Goochland records, and no Goochland Turner appears in Halifax records. (6) There is no migration, no land sale, no parish entry, no tithable, and no legal document linking the Halifax Turners to Goochland County.


Because Elizabeth is documented in Goochland at the exact time the Halifax Turners are documented in Halifax, and because the Halifax Turners form a separate, well‑defined family cluster, Elizabeth cannot be a member of the Halifax Turner family.


 Works Cited

1. John Turner. WikiTree. [Online] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Turner-962.

2. Halifax County (Va.). Tithables and Personal Property Tax Lists, 1752–1800. Documenting Shadrack, Meshack, James, and John Turner as Halifax residents : s.n., Local Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond.

3. Halifax County Episcopal Church Vestry Book, 1752–1817. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah. Call No. FHL 30163.

4. Douglas,William. The Douglas Register. Edited by W. Mac. Jones. Richmond: J.W. Fergusson & Sons, 1928. Marriage of Samuel Gaulding & Elizabeth Turner, 1764; baptisms of daughters, 1765 & 1767.

5. Goochland County, Virginia. Tithables, Land, and Parish Records (St. James Northam Parish. Documenting Josias Turner family cluster in the same parish where Samuel and Elizabeth lived : s.n., Library of Virginia, Richmond.

6. Library of Virginia. “Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants.” . No Halifax Turner appears in Goochland grants; no Goochland Turner appears in Halifax grants.

8. John Turner. Find a Grave. [Online] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107535052/john-turner.

 

 
 
 

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