Sharon Turner
Sharon Turner | |
|---|---|
 Sharon Turner by SirMartin Archer Shee. | |
| Born | 24 September 1768 |
| Died | 13 February 1847(aged 78) Red Lion Square,London |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Known for | Anglo-Saxon history |
Sharon Turner(24 September 1768 – 13 February 1847) was an English historian.[1]
Life
[edit]Turner Was born inPentonville,the eldest son of William and Ann Turner ofYorkshire,who had settled in London upon marrying.[2]He left school at fifteen to be articled to an attorney in theTemple.On 18 January 1795 he married Mary Watts (bap.1768, died 1843), with whom he had at least six children. Among these wereSydney,inspector of reformatory schools, and Mary, married to the economistWilliam Ellis.[1]
Turner became a solicitor but left the profession after he became interested in the study ofIcelandicandAnglo-Saxon literature.He settled himself in Red Lion Square near theBritish Museum,staying there for sixteen years. When his friendIsaac D'Israelileft the synagogue after a dispute with the rabbi, Turner persuaded him to have his children, including the future Prime MinisterBenjamin Disraeli,baptised in the Church of England, to give them a better chance in life.[2]
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.[3]
History of the Anglo-Saxons
[edit]Turner'sHistory of the Anglo-Saxonsappeared in four volumes between 1799 and 1805.
Britain at the time of original publication was involved inwarsagainst Franceand the idea of theNorman yoke(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, thewitenagemot,and general principles of freedom ".[2]Turner researched extensively the collections in theBritish Museumand themanuscriptsofSir Robert Cotton.In doing so he obtained a working knowledge ofOld English.
TheHistoryhad a profound impact on historiography for the succeeding fifty years.[2]Robert Southeysaid that "so much new information was probably never laid before the public in any one historical publication".[4]However, theEdinburgh Reviewin 1804 criticised Turner for a lack of discrimination and for the romantic parts of the work.[2]
SirWalter Scottacknowledged his debt to Turner for his historical work in his Dedicatory Epistle to his novelIvanhoe.[5]In 1981J. W. Burrowsaid Turner produced "the first modern full-length history of Saxon England… It was a genuinely pioneering work, and was much admired, and not without reason".[6]
He contributed articles on English history toRees's Cyclopædia,but the titles are not known.
Historical work
[edit]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 ofWilliam the Conquerorto the accession ofHenry VIII;History of the Reign of Henry VIII;andHistory of the Reigns of Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth.In 1839, the works were combined intoThe History of England,a twelve-volume set covering all of English history up to 1603.
Against the emergence of theFrench Consulate,Turner promoted the notion of Anglo-Saxon liberty as opposed to Norman tyranny (strong since the 17th century).
Turner also authored aSacred History of the World,a translation ofBeowulfand a poem onRichard III.
He was buried in a brick vault atWest Norwood Cemetery.His son, Sydney Turner (1814–1879), was educated atTrinity College, Cambridge,took holy orders in theChurch of England,and becamerectorofHempsted.[7]Sharon Turner's son-in-law wasWilliam Ellis(1800–1881), an educationalist and economist who tutored the British royal family.
Notes
[edit]- ^ab
Cousin, John William(1910), "Turner, Sharon",A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature,London: J. M. Dent & Sons – viaWikisource
- ^abcdeH. R. Loyn, 'Turner, Sharon (1768–1847)',Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, May 2009, accessed 14 August 2010.
- ^"Hints to Our Contributors".The Leisure Hour.3(125): 317. 18 May 1854.Retrieved27 October2017.
- ^Rev. Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.),The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey. Volume II(London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1850), p. 342.
- ^Sir Walter Scott,Ivanhoe(Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 16.
- ^J. W. Burrow,A Liberal Descent. Victorian Historians and the English Past(Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 116–117.
- ^Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
References
[edit]- 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.
Further reading
[edit]- C. T. Berkhout and M. McC. Gatch,Anglo-Saxon Scholarship. The First Three Centuries(Boston, 1992).
- D. G. Calder, 'Histories and Surveys of Old English Literature; a Chronological Review',Anglo-Saxon England10 (1982), pp. 201–244.
- .Dictionary of National Biography.1885–1900.
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