The Life of William Turner
Turner was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, around 1508. His father may well have been the William Turner, a tanner, referred to in 1515 in a deed in the archives of Morpeth Corporation as receiving a grant of 22 roods of land. From reference in his Rescuynge of the Romishe Fox (1545) to education and in particular to methods of teaching Latin in Chantry Schools, it is fairly certain that he was taught by John Lange who was the master and chaplain of the school attached to the Chapel of All Saints on the Bridge in Morpeth. This school was refounded in 1552 under the Chantries Act as the Grammar School.
His interest in natural history sprang from his boyhood pursuits in Northumberland, and in his Herbals there are many references to Morpeth and district.
Writing in part one of the Herbal about Common Broomrape, which he remembered growing near "Morpeth in Northumberland", he stated: "Orobanch is a little stalk, something red, about two spans long sometime more, rough, tender, without leaves: the flower is somewhat white, turning toward yellow… I have marked myself, that this herb groweth more about the roots of broom, which it claspeth about with certain little roots on every side like a dog holding a bone in his mouth: notwithstanding I have not seen any broom choked with this herb: how be it I have seen the herb called three leaved grass or clover utterly strangled, all the natural juice clean drawn out by this herb".
In 1551, Turner was appointed Dean of Wells Cathedral in Somerset, and in the same year published the first of three parts of his famous Herbal, on which his botanical fame rests. This was illustrated, mainly by woodcuts copied from Fuch's De historia Stirpium (1542). For the first time a Herbal was available in England in the vernacular, from which people could identify the main English plants without difficulty.
In 1562, Turner published the second part of his Herbal, dedicated to Sir Thomas Wentworth, son of the patron who had enabled him to go to Cambridge. This book was published by Arnold Birckman of Cologne, and included in the same binding Turner's treatise on baths.
The third and last part of Turner's Herbal was published in 1568, in a volume that also contained revised editions of the first and second parts. This was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. Turner died in July of the same year at this home in Crutched Friars, in the City of London, and is buried in the Parish Church of St Olave's in Hart Street. An engraved stone on the south-east wall of this church commemorates Turner. John Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, writing to Henry Bullinger on 4th August 1568 said "On the 13th of July, Dr William Turner, a good physician and an excellent man, died at London". Thomas Lever, one of the great puritan preachers of the period, delivered the sermon at his funeral.
A plaque on the wall of the old Deanery garden in Wells commemorates William turner with the following wording:
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BEHIND THIS WALL WAS SITUATED
THE HERB GARDEN OF
WILLIAM TURNER, M.D (1508 - 1568)
DEAN OF WELLS 1551-4 AND 1561-8
AUTHOR OF A NEW HERBAL, 1551-68 AND
KNOWN AS THE FATHER OF ENGLISH BOTANY
On the 7th May 1985 Councillor Miss I Smail planted a cutting from a Mulberry Tree in the Gardens at The Chantry, Morpeth. This signified the close connection between Morpeth and Turner for the cutting was taken from a tree that grew in the grounds at King Edward VI School, Morpeth. This in turn had grown from a cutting taken from a Mulberry Tree given by the Duke of Northumberland which grew in the grounds of Syon House on The Thames in London, which was planted by Turner in 1547 when he returned to England and became Physician to Protector Somerset.
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