Sharon Turner (24 September 1768 – 13 February 1847) was an English historian.

Life

Turner Was born in

Pentonville Pentonville is an area on the northern fringe of Central London, in the London Borough of Islington. It is located north-northeast of Charing Cross on the Inner Ring Road. Pentonville developed in the northwestern edge of the ancient parish ...

, the eldest son of William and Ann Turner of

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

, who had settled in London upon marrying.H. R. Loyn,
Turner, Sharon (1768–1847)
, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, May 2009, accessed 14 August 2010. He left school at fifteen to be articled to an attorney in the

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

. On 18 January 1795 he married Mary Watts (''bap.'' 1768, died 1843), with whom he had at least six children. Among these were Sydney, inspector of reformatory schools, and Mary, married to the economist William Ellis. Turner became a solicitor but left the profession after he became interested in the study of Icelandic and

Anglo-Saxon literature Old English literature refers to poetry and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. The 7th-century work '' Cædmo ...

. He settled himself in Red Lion Square near the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, staying there for sixteen years. When his friend Isaac D'Israeli left the synagogue after a dispute with the rabbi, Turner persuaded him to have his children, including the future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, baptised in the Church of England, to give them a better chance in life. Some of his manuscripts were written almost illegibly in the margins of letters, on the inside covers of magazines, or on discarded wax paper. His publisher sent him clean paper but Turner did not use it.

''History of the Anglo-Saxons''

Turner's '' History of the Anglo-Saxons'' appeared in four volumes between 1799 and 1805. Britain at the time of original publication was involved in

wars War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...

against France and the idea of the

Norman yoke The Norman yoke is a term denoting the oppressive aspects of feudalism in England, attributed to the impositions of William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England, his retainers and their descendants. The term was used in English nation ...

(Anglo-Saxon liberty versus Norman despotism) had been around since the seventeenth century. Turner demonstrated Anglo-Saxon liberty "in the shape of a good constitution, temperate kingship, the

witenagemot The Witan () was the king's council in Anglo-Saxon England from before the seventh century until the 11th century. It was composed of the leading magnates, both ecclesiastic and secular, and meetings of the council were sometimes called the Wi ...

, and general principles of freedom". Turner researched extensively the collections in the

and the manuscripts of Sir Robert Cotton. In doing so he obtained a working knowledge of Anglo-Saxon. The ''History'' had a profound impact on historiography for the succeeding fifty years.

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

said that "so much new information was probably never laid before the public in any one historical publication". However, the '' Edinburgh Review'' in 1804 criticised Turner for a lack of discrimination and for the romantic parts of the work. Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

acknowledged his debt to Turner for his historical work in his Dedicatory Epistle to his novel '' Ivanhoe''. In 1981

J. W. Burrow John Wyon Burrow, FBA (4 June 1935 in Southsea – 3 November 2009 in Witney, Oxfordshire)Rees's Cyclopædia Rees's ''Cyclopædia'', in full ''The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature'' was an important 19th-century British encyclopaedia edited by Rev. Abraham Rees (1743–1825), a Presbyterian minister and scholar w ...

'', but the titles are not known.

Historical work

He continued the narrative in several subsequent works: ''History of England During the Middle Ages'', a multi-volume publication covering English history from the reign of

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

to the accession of Henry VIII; ''History of the Reign of Henry VIII''; and ''History of the Reigns of Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth''. In 1839, the works were combined into ''The History of England'', a twelve-volume set covering all of English history up to 1603. Against the emergence of the

French Consulate The Consulate (french: Le Consulat) was the top-level Government of France from the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire on 10 November 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire on 18 May 1804. By extension, the term ''The Co ...

, Turner promoted the notion of Anglo-Saxon liberty as opposed to Norman tyranny (strong since the 17th century). Turner also authored a ''Sacred History of the World'', a translation of '' Beowulf'' and a poem on Richard III. He was buried in a brick vault at

West Norwood Cemetery West Norwood Cemetery is a rural cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery. One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the " Magnificent Seven" cemeteries of ...

. His son, Sydney Turner (1814–1879), was educated at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, took holy orders in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

, and became

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

Hempsted Hempsted is a suburban village and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Gloucester, in the Gloucester district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. In 1961 the parish had a population of 508. History An ancient area of Glo ...

. Sharon Turner's son-in-law was William Ellis (1800–1881), an educationalist and economist who tutored the British royal family.

Notes

References

*H. R. Loyn,
Turner, Sharon (1768–1847)
, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, May 2009, accessed 14 August 2010.

Life

''History of the Anglo-Saxons''

Historical work

Notes

References

Further reading