Families Are Always Rising and Falling in America (1:32)

John Turner III is pictured with images of several of the ships with which his forebears made the family fortune. He inherited the House of the Seven Gables in 1742 and his financial reverses and excesses required him to sell it in 1782. The portrait is a Twentieth Century copy by Salem native Harry Sutton of the original by John Smibert that is part of the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. John Turner III unfortunately did not inherit the business acumen of previous generations, and due to some risky deals in real estate, lost the family fortune in the 1780s. While the probate inventory of John Turner II was nearly 15 pages long, and was valued at 11,000 pounds, Turner III’s was only ¾ of a page in length, and valued at about 60 pounds at the time of his death. He was forced to sell off his properties to make up his debt, including the House of the Seven Gables, which he sold to the Ingersoll family in 1782.