Turks in the United Kingdom/Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales)

Since 1707 the name Great Britain has applied politically to England, Scotland and Wales.  Great Britain and the United Kingdom are the same thing. 

The link below is a site with four main groups of Turk family;

• Gloucester area
• Central London
• South-East Kent
• Kent / Sussex border around Cowden, Buxted, Rotherfield & Withyham.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/nesterova/

A review of the database of the TURK Surname Society reveals the following distribution of this surname in the British Isles:
England - 2639
Ireland - 53
Northern Ireland - 125
Scotland - 74
Wales - 4
The distribution of this surname in England breaks out by counties and shires as:
Bedford - 3
Berk - 12
Buckingham - 5
Cambridge - 4
Cheshire - 1
Cornwall - 3
Cumberland - 4
Derby - 3
Devon - 24
Dorset - 64
Essex - 96
Gloucester - 515
Hampshire - 45
Hereford - 6
Hertford - 10
Kent - 517
Lancaster - 6
Lincoln - 1
London - 291
Middlesex - 3
Monmouth - 8
Norfolk - 33
Northampton - 2
Northumberland - 1
Nottingham - 3
Oxford - 15
Shropshire - 12
Somerset - 50
Stafford - 4
Suffolk - 17
Surrey - 72
Sussex - 476
Warwick - 17
Wiltshire - 266
Worcester - 16
York - 8
Those counties/shires not enumerated have no representation in the TURK Surname database. The tally of counties/shires (2613) does not equal the sum of the non-duplicated count for England (2639). This is because not all those from England are identified with a county or shire. Additionally, some are associated with more than one county or shire. Association is defined as birth/christening, marriage, or death/burial. Toni Richard Turk

From laurella <laurella2001@yahoo.com>
Date: 7/5/2004
While googling the name "Richard Turk," I ran across a site titled "A list of Priors and Grand Priors, Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Jurisdiction of England or the British Isles." I have included the list at the bottom here. Richard Turk was the third prior, serving from 1165 to 1170 A.D. The order was apparently some kind of international Christian knightly social service group organized to help the poor. It was Catholic in this Richard's time. I don't know whether or not it opened up to Protestants during the Protestant Reformation in England. The group still exists today and apparently supports hospitals, etc. It was organized in England in Kent County, where one cluster of Turks of English background originated.

Google: "Jurisdiction of England or the British Isles" to find the list. The website address for the whole colorful site is www2.prestel.co.uk>church/oosj/priors

Turk in 12th Century England

Note from Brian Williams 11/10/2001:

I started researching the Turk surname in 1985 and for a few years at the end of the decade I registered the name with the Guild of One Name Studies. Professional and personal pressures meant that I did very little research during the 1990's but I have recently returned to the subject.  My connection with the surname is via my mother who is decended from a line of Turks who lived on the Kent/Sussex border at least as far back as the 1750's.

One of the first tasks I undertook was to carry out a geographical survey of the surname in the UK based on the 1984/85 telephone directories. This showed a statistically significant concentration in two particular areas:

            Kent/Sussex border
            Gloucestershire with another concentration in Lincolnshire.

Subsequently I started collecting references to the Turk surname from all of the principle sources of genealogical information available in the UK. As well as tracing the history of my own Turk line.  I wanted to understand how the distribution of the surname has developed over the centuries and if at all possible to understand its origins as far as the UK is concerned.

Having returned to the task I am now working on creating a surname database from all the references I have collected so far and I have started collecting more references. Naturally I have only scratched the surface of this subject but as I am sure you would agree it is a very absorbing hobby.  Please let me know if I can be of any help.

Best wishes

Brian Williams  (Brian.Williams20@btopenworld.com)

______________
Note from: silverwings44 [mailto:silverwings44@peoplepc.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 11:05 AM
To: nturk@sears.com
Subject: Brig o' Turk

Hi Nancy,    I am grateful to Toni for the connection, via Ephraim Turk (b:1791 in PA), to the Turks of Scotland.  I am flying to Britain in April (2007) and will visit the site of Brig o' Turk, about 50 miles NW of Edinburough.  My paternal grandmother had the maiden name of Turk.  Ephraim was my GGG grandfather.  His father, William Turk, was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1765, and obviously emigrate to PA sometime between 1765 and 1791, when Ephraim was born.  Toni had said that the family left Scotland and "resided in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, for about two generations" prior to settling in PA, so it appears that the family made their way to Ireland in the early 1700's.  Brig o' Turk is in the middle of the MacGregor clan area of Scotland, where Rob Roy had conflict with the English rulers about that time (early 1700's).  In fact, the Rob Roy Visitor Center is located in Callander, Scotland, about 5 miles east of Brig o' Turk.  In this case, according to Answers.com (in researching BoT), the name Turk is derived from the Gaelic, Tuirc, which means Wild Boar.  If you know of anyone that has a connection with Ephraim Turk of PA, please connect me with them.  I would love to share information.  Please also add me to your email distribution list.  I look forward to walking in the footsteps of my ancestors this April.  Thanks!    ---    Terry Mindham