Sharon Turner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sharon Turner (September 24, 1768 - February 13, 1847) was a historian. Born in Pentonville, Turner was the eldest son of William and Ann Turner, Yorkshire natives who had settled in London upon marrying. He left school at fifteen to be articled to an attorney in the Temple. On January 18, 1795 he married Mary Watts (bap. 1768, d. 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. He settled himself in Red Lion Square near the British Museum, staying there for sixteen years. Utilizing his access to rare materials, he was the first serious scholar to examine the migrations of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. The results of his researches were published in his History of the Anglo-Saxons (1799-1805), appearing in several subsequent editions. Thereafter he continued the narrative in History of England (1814-29), concluding with the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. Against the emergence of the French Consulate, he promoted the notion of Anglo-Saxon liberty as opposed to Norman tyranny (strong since the 17th century).

These histories, especially the former, though somewhat marred by an attempt to emulate the grandiose style of Gibbon, were works of real research opening up and to a considerable extent developing a new field of inquiry in the area of Anglo-Saxon history.

For example, Herodotus reported the Persians called the Scythians “Sakai,” and Sharon Turner identified these very people as the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. In carefully determining their origins in the Caucusus, Turner wrote: “The migrating Scythians crossed the Araxes, passed out of Asia, and suddenly appeared in Europe in the sixth century B.C… The names Saxon, Scythian and Goth are used interchangeably.”

His books sold well in part because he made the British reason to feel self-confident: he wrote that his nation was “inferior to none in every moral and intellectual merit, [and] superior to every other in the love and possession of useful liberty”. The British were said to cultivate with equal success “the elegancies of art, the ingenious labours of industry, the researches of science and the richest productions of genius”.

Turner also authored a Sacred History of the World, a translation of Beowulf and a poem on Richard III. He advised his friend Isaac D'Israeli to baptize his children (Benjamin included) in order to give them a better chance in life.

Turner's place as a historian has been debated by later generations of academics.

This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.