William Turner (naturalist)

William Turner MA (1509/10 – 13 July 1568) was an English divine and reformer, a physician and a natural historian. He studied medicine in Italy, and was a friend of the great Swiss naturalist, Conrad Gessner. He was an early herbalist and ornithologist, and it is in these fields that the most interest lies today.

Turner was born in Morpeth, Northumberland in or around 1508. His father was probably a tanner of the same name. He studied at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge University from 1526 to 1533, where he received his B.A. in 1530 and his M.A. in 1533. He was a Fellow and Senior Treasurer of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. While at Cambridge he published several works, including Libellus de re herbaria, in 1538. He spent much of his leisure in the careful study of plants which he sought for in their native habitat, and described with an accuracy hitherto unknown in England.

In 1540, he began traveling about preaching until he was arrested. After his release, he went on to study medicine in Italy, at Ferrara and Bologna, from 1540 to 1542 and was incorporated M.D. at one of these universities. He married Jane Auder, perhaps a widow of a Mr Cage when they married. They were married by 1542 when is the year his son Dr Peter Wells was born.

After completing his medical degree, he became physician to the Earl of Emden. Back in England he became Chaplain and physician to the Duke of Somerset, and through Somerset's influence he obtained ecclesiastical preferment. The position as Somerset's physician also led to practice among upper society. He was prebendary of Botevant in York Cathedral in 1550, and Dean of Wells Cathedral from 1551 to 1553, where he established a Herbal garden. When Mary I of England acceded to the throne, Turner went into exile once again. From 1553 to 1558, he lived in Weißenburg and supported himself as a physician. He became a Calvinist at this time, if not before.

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