Despite all the concern about the impact of bird flu and the overall economic cost of the traditional Christmas meal I imagine that we shall as a nation consume a great number of turkeys over coming days.
The introduction of turkeys into England from
North America came about in the sixteenth century, with their apparent arrival in 1526. Originally turkeys were apparently not kept to eat but as novelty fowl. Soon however their edible properties were discovered and the rest, is as the saying goes, history - and cookery.
When exactly the English started eating Turkey is a bit unclear but an online piece from the
londonist.com website has a report suggesting that the first dateableevidence comes from the Bishop of London’s residence at Fulham Palace with bones dated to the range 1480 -1550. That would suggest the Bishop of London who enjoyed this early turkey meal was Cuthbert Tunstall, John Stokesley or Edmund Bonner. The article refers to other turkey bones which have been found recently in Exeter and assigned to 1520-1550. So there is a coincidence of dates and that suggests that turkeys moved from being ornamental fowl to table fare pretty quickly. I saw online that at that time it was probably served not as a whole roast fowl but as a constituent of something like a game pie.
The article can be seen at Was The First Ever Turkey Dinner Eaten At Fulham Palace?
Turkeys are said to have been introduced to England by the Yorkshire based William Strickland. He had travelled to North America with Sebastian Cabot and in 1526 travelled back with six live turkeys he had been given by the indigenous inhabitants. In 1542 he bought the estate at Boynton near Bridlington and in 1550 his crest as recorded by the College of Arms is the earliest drawing of a turkey in Europe. There is a life of Strickland who later became a puritanically minded Elizabethan MP for Scarborough at William Strickland (navigator) something about his descendants family home at Boynton Hall and an introduction to their home village at Boynton, East Riding of Yorkshire
In the village church are family memorials with the Turkey crest and a relatively modern, and unique, lectern in the form of, obviously, a turkey.
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