in Jackson's ‘Life’ from Lansdowne manuscripts. He prepared for the press William of Newburgh's ‘Historia rerum Anglicarum,’ which was published by Silvius at Antwerp in 1567, but with the omission of some chapters and of Turner's preface; it was reprinted in 1587 and later (Hearne, Hemingi Cartularium, ii. 669). Other works, not now known to exist, are noted by Bale and Tanner, as ‘Imagines stirpium,’ ‘De Baptismo parvulorum,’ &c.
[Memoirs by Jackson, u.s., with Bibliography, Potts u.s., and in Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 255 sq.; Hodgson's Northumberland, ii. 455 sq.; Strype's Works (8vo edit.); Foxe's Acts and Monuments, ed. Townsend; Brook's Puritans, i. 128; Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss; Wells Cath. MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.); Bale's Scriptt. sæc. viii. 95, p. 697; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 727.]
TURNER, WILLIAM (1653–1701), divine, son of William Turner of Marbury, Cheshire, was born there in 1653. After being taught by a private schoolmaster, he went to Broad Oak, Flint, as pupil to Philip Henry [q. v.] He matriculated from St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, on 26 March 1669, graduating B.A. 1672, M.A. 1675, and taking holy orders. In April 1680 he was appointed vicar of Walberton, Sussex, and in 1697 rector of Binstead in the same county. Turner died at Walberton, and was buried there on 6 Feb. 1700–1. By his wife Magdalen he had a son William, born on 6 June 1693.
Turner compiled an ingenious ‘History of all Religions,’ London, 1695, 8vo, and wrote ‘An Essay on the Works of Creation,’ published at the same place and date; the latter contains the ‘scheme’ of his principal work, the rare and curious ‘Compleat History of the most Remarkable Providences, Both of Judgment and Mercy, which have Hapned in this Present Age. … To which is added whatever is curious in the Works of Nature and Art,’ London, 1697, fol. This was set on foot, Turner says, thirty years earlier by Matthew Poole [q. v.], but completed by himself. It is dedicated to John Hall, bishop of Chichester. A fine copy is in the Grenville Library at the British Museum. It is in three parts and has seven separate paginations. John Dunton [q. v.], the bookseller, who was Turner's publisher, says he was ‘very generous, and would not receive a farthing for his copy till the success was assured.’
[Turner's Works; Williams's Life of Philip Henry, 1825, pp. 123, 246, 231, 441, 442, 443; Dunton's Life and Errors, 1705, p. 225; Lowndes's Bibl. Man.; Williams's Mem. of Mrs. Sarah Sawyer; Tong's Life of Matt. Henry, 1716, p. 12; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; information kindly supplied by the Rev. W. H. Irvine, vicar of Walberton.]
TURNER, WILLIAM (1651–1740), musician, born in 1651, was the son of Charles Turner, cook of Pembroke College, Oxford. At the restoration of church choirs William Turner became a choirboy under Edward Lowe [q. v.] at Christ Church, but was soon afterwards, according to Tudway, in the Chapel Royal, where he was reckoned one of the ‘second set of choirboys.’ He formed a close friendship with the most distinguished members of the older set, Pelham Humfrey [q. v.] and John Blow [q. v.], and shared with them in the production of the ‘Club Anthem.’ Tudway relates that this work was composed in one day, and performed the following day, news arriving on Saturday of a victory over the Dutch. There are chronological difficulties [see Blow, John] in connection with Tudway's account. Turner's share of the anthem was the middle portion, a bass solo. After his voice had broken, he developed a fine counter-tenor, and sang for a time at Lincoln Cathedral. He was sworn a gentleman of the Chapel Royal on 11 Oct. 1669. He soon afterwards became also a vicar choral of St. Paul's and a lay vicar of Westminster Abbey.
Turner had a considerable share in the celebrations of St. Cecilia's Day, which took place nearly every year from 1683 to 1702. In 1685 he was selected to compose the ode, which that year was written by Nahum Tate. The result was probably unsatisfactory; the music was not printed (though the odes sung in 1683 and 1684, set by Purcell and Blow, had been), and is now lost, the celebration being suspended the following year. Turner appears in the list of singers at the celebration of 1687, and again in 1692 and 1695, the only celebrations at which the performers' names are preserved. In 1696 Turner graduated Mus. Doc. Cantabr.; a grand concert was given at the Commencement on 7 July. A Latin poem written on the occasion was printed on a folio sheet; it compliments Turner as inferior to Purcell alone. For St. Cecilia's day, 1697, when Dryden's ‘Alexander's Feast’ was the ode, Turner composed an anthem, ‘The King shall rejoice,’ sung at the service in St. Bride's, Fleet Street, which began the celebration. In 1698 he set the birthday ode for the Princess Anne; and announced a second performance on 4 May at the concert-room in York Buildings, ‘with other variety of new vocal and instrumental musick, composed by Dr. Turner, and for his benefit’ (London Gazette, 2 May 1698). On 31 Jan.
