Family and Education

b. ?1742, 2nd s. of William Turner of Turnford, Herts. ‘dealer in foreign spirits’,1 by  his w. Ann.  m. (1) Sarah Perry (d. 7 Mar. 1782), da. of William Tillet of Latton, Essex, 3s. 3da.; (2) 2 Sept. 1782, Miss Swiney.  Kntd. 16 Jan. 1784.

Offices Held

Alderman of London 1781, sheriff 1783- d.

Biography

Turner, after spending some years at sea, entered the sugar trade in London about 1763. During the Gordon riots in 1780 he ‘stimulated a number of gentlemen to form a group of volunteer horse, at the head of which he preserved the Bank from plunder’.2 He was knighted on presenting an address against Fox's East India bill. When at the general election he stood for Southwark he received £500 from secret service money.3 He was returned unopposed, but died 15 June 1784, less than a month after Parliament assembled. There is no record of any vote or speech by him in the House. Turner apparently died heavily in debt: according to the Gentleman's Magazine his funeral procession was held up by ‘a creditor to a large amount’ who ‘having no bond or other security took this step in person ... in hopes of obtaining a security from some of the friends of the deceased ... The creditor, it is said, was his brother-in-law, who gave him the qualification for his seat in Parliament’; and on 1 July the court of common council for transacting City business discussed the provision of a sum ‘for the relief of the six children of the late much lamented Sir Barnard Turner’.4

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

• 1. Gent. Mag. 1784, pp. 477, 834.
• 2. Manning & Bray, Surr. iii. 558.
• 3. Royal archives, Windsor.
• 4. Gent. Mag. 1784, p. 552.