William Turner (1761 - 1859)

Born 20 Sep 1761 in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Holland) Turner — married 24 Jul 1784 in Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, Manchester, Lancashire, England

Husband of Jane (Willets) Turner — married 8 Jun 1799 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England

Descendants

Died 24 Apr 1859 at age 97 in Greenheys, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

William Turner, secundus (1761–1859), eldest son of William Turner and Mary Holland, was born at Wakefield on 20 Sept. 1761.

He was educated at Warrington Academy (1777–81) and Glasgow University (1781–2).

On 25 Sept. 1782 he was ordained pastor of the Hanover Square congregation, Newcastle-on-Tyne. He ministered at Newcastle for fifty-nine years, retiring on 20 Sept. 1841.

He was a main founder (1793) of the Literary and Philosophical Society at Newcastle, and acted as secretary till 1833; he was also a founder of the Natural Historical Society (1824). He was a chief projector of the Newcastle branch of the Bible Society, and one of its secretaries till 1831. Every benevolent and scientific interest in the town owed much to him. From 1808 till his death he was visitor of Manchester College (then at York, now at Oxford), and till 1840 he invariably delivered the visitor's annual address. Among the subscribers to a volume of his sermons published in 1838 appeared the names of two bishops, who by their action incurred some censure [see Maltby, Edward].

He married, first, in 1784, Mary (d. 16 Jan. 1797), daughter of Thomas Holland of Manchester; secondly, on 8 June 1799, Jane (d. 1855), eldest daughter of William Willets, minister at Newcastle-under-Lyme.

He survived all but one of his children. A long list of his publications is given in the ‘Christian Reformer,’ 1859, p. 459. This does not include his contributions to periodicals, usually signed V. F. [i.e. Vigilii Filius]; with this signature he contributed to the ‘Monthly Repository,’ 1810 and 1811, a valuable series of historical and biographical articles relating to Warrington Academy. His portrait, by Morton, and his bust, by Bailey, are in the rooms of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle.

He died at Lloyd Street, Greenheys, Manchester, on 24 April 1859, and was buried on 28 April in the graveyard of Upper Brook Street chapel.

Sources

• Gordon, Alexander. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 57 - Turner, William (1714-1794) https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Turner,_William_(1714-1794)_(DNB00)
• Clay, John William. Familiae Minorum Gentium: Mitchell and Hughes, 1894, p. 176
• Marriage: "England, Select Marriages, 1538-1973"
  England, Marriages, 1538-1973. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013; FHL Film Number: 438185, 844799
  Ancestry Record 9852 #26732309 (subscription required, accessed 9 January 2023)
  William Turner marriage to Mary Holland on 24 Jul 1784 in Cathedral, Manchester, Lancashire, England.
• Marriage: "England, Select Marriages, 1538-1973"
  England, Marriages, 1538-1973. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013; FHL Film Number: 1040775
  Ancestry Record 9852 #19605206 (subscription required, accessed 9 January 2023)
  William Turner marriage to Jane Willets on 8 Jun 1799 in Saint Giles, Newcastle Under Lyme, Stafford, England.
• https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=160217595
• Wikipedia: William Turner (Unitarian minister)
• https://archive.org/details/descendantsofphi00lond/page/36/mode/2up (Lawrence, Sarah. The Descendants of Philip Henry, M.A.: Incumbent of Worthenbury, in the County of Flint; who was Ejected Therefrom by the Act of Uniformity in 1662: Simpkin, Marshall, and Company, John Merridew, Leamington, 1844: page 36).