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Turner, Peter
- 1. Dates
- Born: London, 1586
- Died: London, Jan. 1652
- Dateinfo: Dates Certain
- Lifespan: 66
- 2. Father
- Occupation: Physician
- The father, also Peter Turner, was a physician in London. His father, William Turner, is also in this catalogue as one of the fathers of English natural history.
- I assume physicians are at least prosperous.
- 3. Nationality
- Birth: English
- Career: English
- Death: English
- 4. Education
- Schooling: Oxford, M.A.
- Oxford University, St. Mary Hall, then Christ Church; B.A., 1605; M.A., 1612.
- M.D., conferred during a royal visit, 1636. I do not count this as an advanced degree.
- 5. Religion
- Affiliation: Anglican
- Turner was close to Archbishop Laud. He was a dedicated royalist during the Civil War.
- 6. Scientific Disciplines
- Primary: Mathematics
- Turner left no writings. He was known more as a Latinist and linguist. He held two chairs in mathematics, and was said by Wood, for whatever his opinion counts on this subject, to be a learned mathematician. I am leaving Turner in, but his claim to being part of the scientific community is as thin as anyone in this catalogue.
- 7. Means of Support
- Primary: Academia
- Secondary: Military
- Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, 1607-48.
- Professor of geometry at Gresham College, 1620-30.
- Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, 1630-48. He was ejected, as as royalist, from both the chair and the fellowship, in 1648.
- Served under Sir John Byron in the Civil War, 1641.
- 8. Patronage
- Type: Eccesiastic Official
- Archbishop Laud was instrumental in his appointment to the Savilian chair. Turner was one of the most active members of the committee that produced the Laudian statutes of Oxford. I assume that it was in this connection that he caught Laud's eye. Wood says that Turner was much loved by Laud, who wanted to make him a Secretary of State or a clerk of the Privy Council. According to Wood, Turner prefered the studious life--and, Wood adds, he had hopes of becoming the Warden of Merton.
- 9. Technological Involvement
- Types: None
- 10. Scientific Societies
- Memberships: None
- Informal Connections: Connection with Gresham College.
- Sources
- Dictionary of National Biography (repr., London: Oxford University Press, 1949-50), 19, 1278. John Ward, Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, facsimile ed. (New York, 1967), pp. 129-35.
- C.E. Mallet, A History of the University of Oxford, (New York, 1924)., 2, 242, 314-15, 358, 382. Anthony à Wood, Athenae oxonienses (Fasti oxonienses is attached, with separate pagination, to the Athenae), 4 vols. (London, 1813-20), 3, 306-7.
- Compiled by:
- Richard S. Westfall
- Department of History and Philosophy of Science
- Indiana University
Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue
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