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November 15, 1708

 

William Pitt Turner was a doctor and the brother of a doctor and the son of Dr. Philip Turner, all good Connecticut citizens in post revolutionary America, in 1787, to be exact. William and John were members of a local musical society, to which they contributed their collection of dance tunes. William also wrote verse describing members of this Norwich Assembly and we quote:


...the lads with merry glee,
...
Have spent of shillings not a few;
the fair to please, night-errants stout,
they've turn'd their purses wrong-side out;
And to maintain, their dancing sett,
All head and ears they've run in debt;
Some to the Cobler for their shoes,
Some to the Merchants for their cloaths,
Of jackets, stocks and cambrick ruffles,
....

A Dokt-r trimmed with fur of cat.
Gives orders out and does proceed,
In managing to take the lead;
....


A self portrait perhaps, of youth in a young nation. We found this in Dance and its music in America, 1528-1789, (2007) by Kate Van Winkle Keller. We assume that our subject was named after William Pitt (the elder) (November 15,  1708  to May 11, 1778) since that British Prime Minister was sympathetic to the American argument in the lead up to war, and since such a practise of naming was then common.

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