William Strickland (navigator)

William Strickland (died 8 December 1598) was an English landowner who sailed on early voyages of exploration to the Americas and is credited with introducing the turkey into England. In later life he was a prominent Puritan Member of Parliament.

Strickland was the son of a Yorkshire gentleman, Roger Strickland of Marske, and was probably descended from a junior branch of the Stricklands of Sizergh. As a young man he sailed to the New World as one of Sebastian Cabot's lieutenants, and is generally credited with introducing the turkey to England. The association seems to have been accepted by his contemporaries since, when in 1550 he was granted a coat of arms, it included a "turkey-cock in his pride proper". The official record of his crest in the archives of the College of Arms is said to be the oldest surviving European drawing of a turkey.

Strickland returned to Yorkshire in 1542, and with the proceeds of his voyages bought estates at Wintringham and at Boynton, both in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He seems to have lived the remainder of his life at Place Newton, his house at Wintringham where he is buried, but he had the Norman manor house at Boynton rebuilt as Boynton Hall, and this became the seat of his descendants. The church at Boynton is liberally decorated with the family's turkey crest, most notably in the form of a probably-unique lectern (a 20th-century creation) carved in the form of a turkey rather than the conventional eagle, the bible supported by its outspread tail feathers.

In 1558, Strickland was elected to the Parliament of England as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Scarborough, and seems to have proved an able and eloquent advocate of the Puritan cause, earning such nicknames as "Strickland the Stinger" from his political opponents, though the anonymous author of the Simonds d'Ewes diaries described him sardonically as "One Mr Strickland, a grave and ancient man of great zeal, and perhaps (as he himself thought) not unlearned".

...
Wikipedia