Built on a property occupied by descendants of Japhet Turner and Hannah Hudson Turner from 1688 until 1846, the Paul Turner House seems likely to have been constructed for Paul Sampson Turner (1795-1841), the fourth generation of the family to occupy a portion of the property after the water privilege previously used by the family for a sawmill and gristmill had been sold to a cotton and woolen manufacturer in 1814. Local tradition reports that the first formal call for American Independence (the Pembroke Resolves) was drawn up here in 1772 with John Turner serving as the chairman of the drafting committee; however, physical evidence contained in the style and construction methods of the house does not support this building as the location of this event. It is possible that the earlier timbers were used as salvage in building portions of the rear ell or the now demolished barn wing, but the house appears to have been built in a single campaign in the late Federal style. Following the death of Paul Sampson Turner, the house was sold out of the Turner Family in 1846.
READ MORE on Paul Turner House