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History of the Nonjurors.

family, and no support out of the common bank of charity: but if your Lordship thinks fit to have Mr. Carlton's sum thrown together into the public stock, your commands will be punctually observed."[1] This letter is dated 1706, consequently there must be an error in the date or the name, as Turner died in 1700. But in either case the circumstance shews the sad state in which the deprived Bishops were placed, and how much they suffered for conscience sake. Probably none of their detractors ever suffered for conscience. He had lived in retirement since his deprivation: and was buried in the chancel of the church of Therfield, Herts, of which place he had formerly been rector. One word only was inscribed on the stone by which his mortal remains were covered, Expergiscar! He was a man of considerable eminence and of great sincerity.

King James died on the sixth of September 1701, at St. Germains, after which the King of France recognized James's son as King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. This led to certain Parliamentary enactments against him under the designation of the Pretender, the name by which he is usually known in English history. Thus an Act was passed for securing the succession, and for extinguishing the hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales. All official persons, including ecclesiastics, were required to take an Oath of Abjuration before the 1st of August 1702, the penalty of refusal being the forfeiture of their posts or preferments.[2] Thomas Turner, brother of the deprived Bishop of Ely, who complied at the Revolution, stumbled at the Abjuration Oath. He went, on


  1. Nicolson's Epistolary Correspondence, i. 305.
  2. Life of Queen Anne, i. 64.