19th foot or 1st Yorkshire North Riding regiment on 27 April 1811 on transfer from the colonelcy of the Cape regiment, which he had held for a very short period. He was promoted to be lieutenant-general on 4 June 1813. On 4 May 1814 he was made a D.C.L. of Oxford, being then in attendance on the Archduchess Catherine of Russia. On 28 July, on the conclusion of his duties in attendance on the Duchess of Oldenburg during her visit to England, he was knighted by the prince regent. On 12 June he had been appointed lieutenant-governor of Jersey and to command the troops there, and held the post until March 1816.
In 1825 Turner was appointed governor of the Bermuda Islands, and administered the government for six years. On 22 July 1830 he was promoted to be general, and on his return from the Bermudas was made a knight grand cross of the royal Hanoverian Guelphic order and appointed a groom of the bedchamber in the royal household. He died on 7 May 1843 at his residence, Gowray, Jersey.
Turner was the author of ‘A Short Account of Ancient Chivalry and a Description of Armour,’ London, 1799, 8vo; also of a translation from the French of General Warnery's ‘Thoughts and Anecdotes, Military and Historical,’ London, 1811, 8vo. He contributed several papers to the ‘Archæologia’ of the Society of Antiquaries of London, among others: ‘Some Account, with a drawing, of the ruined Chapelle de Notre Dame des Pas in Jersey’ (vol. xxvii.); and ‘Two Views of a Cromlech near Mount Orgueil, Jersey’ (vol. xxviii.).
[War Office Records; Despatches; Cannon's Records of the 19th or First Yorkshire North Riding Regiment; Military Calendar, 1820; Military Annual, 1844; Gent. Mag, 1843, 1844; Annual Register, 1843; Allibone's Dictionary of English Literature.]
TURNER, WILLIAM (d. 1568), dean of Wells, physician and botanist, a native of Morpeth, Northumberland, and believed to have been the son of William Turner, a tanner, became a student of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, under the patronage of Thomas, lord Wentworth (Turner, Herbal, pt. ii. Pref.). He proceeded B.A. in 1529–30, and was elected junior fellow; became joint-treasurer of his college in 1532, commenced M.A. in 1533, had a title for orders from the college in 1537, and was senior treasurer in 1538 (Cooper). While at Cambridge he was intimate with Nicholas Ridley [q. v.] (afterwards bishop of London), who was of the same college and instructed him in Greek, was often his opponent in theological exercises, and joined him in practising archery and playing tennis (Strype, Memorials, iii. i. 385–6). He often heard Hugh Latimer [q. v.] preach, accepted his teachings, and was one of those early professors of the gospel at Cambridge who used to meet for religious conference at a house called the White Horse, and nicknamed ‘Germany’ by their opponents (Strype, Parker, i. 12–13). Before leaving Cambridge he published his translation of ‘The Comparison between the Olde Learnynge and the Newe’ in 1537, a small religious book, ‘Unio Dissidentium,’ in 1538, and in the same year his ‘Libellus de re Herbaria,’ which was his first essay in a branch of science then little cultivated at Cambridge; for, writing of this work thirty years later, he says that while he was there he ‘could learne neuer one Greke nether Latin nor English name euen amongst the Phisicions of any herb or tre, suche was the ignorance in simples at that tyme’ (Herbal, pt. iii. pref.) He left Cambridge in 1540 and travelled about preaching in various places, stayed for a time at Oxford for ‘the conversation of men and books,’ and was afterwards imprisoned for preaching without a license (Wood, Athenæ, i. 361). On his release he left England and travelled in Holland, Germany, and Italy, receiving in 1542 a benevolence of 26s. 8d. from his college (Cooper); stayed some time at Bologna, studying botany under Luca Ghini, and either there or at Ferrara graduated M.D. From Italy he went to Zurich, became intimate with Conrad Gesner, the famous naturalist, who had a high opinion of his knowledge of medicine and general learning; was at Basle in 1543, and at Cologne in 1544. He collected plants in many parts of the Rhine country, and in Holland and East Frieseland, where he became physician to the ‘Erle of Emden,’ and made expeditions to the islands lying off the coast (Jackson). During this time he put forth several books on religion which were popular in England, and on 8 July 1546 all persons were forbidden by proclamation to have any book written by him in English (Ames, Typogr. Antiq. i. 450); he also wrote his ‘Herbal,’ but delayed its publication until he returned to England.
He returned on the accession of Edward VI, became chaplain and physician to the Duke of Somerset, and, it appears from a passage in his ‘Spirituall Physick’ (f. 44), had a seat in the House of Commons. He continued his botanical studies, had access to the duke's gardens, and had a garden of his own at Kew, where he was residing. In September 1548 he wrote to William
