Thomas Turner 1645-1714

Thomas TURNER 1645-1714

Biographical Note

Born in Bristol, son of Thomas Turner, Dean of Canterbury. BA Corpus Christi College, Oxford 1666, MA 1669, fellow 1672, BD 1677, DD 1683. Vicar of Milton next Sittingbourne, Kent 1672-95, rector of Thorley, Hertfordshire 1680-89, rector of Fulham 1688; archdeacon of Essex 1680, canon of Ely 1686. Chaplain to James II 1685. President of Corpus Christi 1688. His political and religious sympathies leaned to the Jacobites and nonjurors but he conformed to establishment requirements. During his time as President he undertook extensive work to improve the college buildings, including the hall, chapel and President's lodgings, much of it at his own expense.

Books

Turner also sponsored work on the College library during his lifetime, and he bequeathed all his books to the college ("all I mean that are fit to be there for I may perhaps have some trifling things that may not be fit for so solemn a place which I leave to the judgment of the college"). This constituted a substantial bequest, noted to be particularly strong in contemporary theology and polemics. Examples: in Corpus Christi, Oxford.

Sources

• Butler, Christine. "Turner, Thomas (1645–1714), college head." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.