Sharon Turner
Encyclopedia
Sharon Turner was an English historian
.
, Turner was the eldest son of William and Ann Turner, Yorkshire
natives who had settled in London
upon marrying. He left school at fifteen to be articled to an attorney in the Temple
. On 18 January 1795 he married Mary Watts (bap. 1768, died 1843), with whom he had at least six children. Among these were Sydney, inspector of reformatory schools, and Mary, married to the economist William Ellis
.
Turner became a solicitor but left the profession after he became interested in the study of Icelandic
and Anglo-Saxon literature
. He settled himself in Red Lion Square near the British Museum
, staying there for sixteen years. He advised his friend Isaac D'Israeli
to baptize his children (Benjamin included) in order to give them a better chance in life.
appeared in four volumes between 1799 and 1805.
Britain at the time of original publication was involved in wars against France
and the idea of the Norman yoke
(Anglo-Saxon liberty versus Norman despotism) had been around since the seventeenth century. Turner demonstrated Anglo-Saxon liberty "in the shape of a good constitution, temperate kingship, the witenagemot
, and general principles of freedom". Turner researched extensively the collections in the British Museum
and the manuscripts
of Sir Robert Cotton. In doing so he obtained a working knowledge of Anglo-Saxon.
The History had a profound impact on historiography for the succeeding fifty years. Robert Southey
said that "so much new information was probably never laid before the public in any one historical publication". However the Edinburgh Review
in 1804 criticised Turner for a lack of discrimination and for the romantic parts of the work.
Sir Walter Scott
acknowledged his debt to Turner for his historical work in his Dedicatory Epistle to his novel Ivanhoe
. In 1981 J. W. Burrow
said Turner produced "the first modern full-length history of Saxon England...It was a genuinely pioneering work, and was much admired, and not without reason".
(1814-29), concluding with the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. Against the emergence of the French Consulate
, he promoted the notion of Anglo-Saxon liberty as opposed to Norman tyranny (strong since the 17th century).
These histories, especially the former, though somewhat marred by an attempt to emulate the grandiose style of Gibbon, were works of real research, opening up and to a considerable extent developing a new field of inquiry in the area of Anglo-Saxon history. For example, Herodotus
reported the Persians called the Scythians “Sakai”, and Sharon Turner identified these very people as the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. In carefully determining their origins in the Caucasus, Turner wrote: “The migrating Scythians crossed the Araxes, passed out of Asia, and suddenly appeared in Europe in the sixth century B.C… The names Saxon, Scythian and Goth
are used interchangeably.”
Turner also authored a Sacred History of the World, a translation of Beowulf
and a poem on Richard III. Turner's place as a historian has been debated by later generations of academics.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
.
Life
Born in PentonvillePentonville
Pentonville is an area of north-central London in the London Borough of Islington, centred on the Pentonville Road. The area is named after Henry Penton, who developed a number of streets in the 1770s in what was open countryside adjacent to the New Road...
, Turner was the eldest son of William and Ann Turner, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
natives who had settled in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
upon marrying. He left school at fifteen to be articled to an attorney in the Temple
Inns of Court
The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. All such barristers must belong to one such association. They have supervisory and disciplinary functions over their members. The Inns also provide libraries, dining facilities and professional...
. On 18 January 1795 he married Mary Watts (bap. 1768, died 1843), with whom he had at least six children. Among these were Sydney, inspector of reformatory schools, and Mary, married to the economist William Ellis
William Ellis (economist)
William Ellis was an English businessman, writer on economics, and educational thinker.-Life:Ellis was born in January 1800. His father, Andrew Ellis Ellis, an underwriter at Lloyd's of London, was the descendant of a French refugee family named De Vezian, and took the name Ellis shortly after the...
.
Turner became a solicitor but left the profession after he became interested in the study of Icelandic
Icelandic literature
Icelandic literature refers to literature written in Iceland or by Icelandic people. It is best known for the sagas written in medieval times, starting in the 13th century. As Icelandic and Old Norse are almost the same, and because Icelandic works constitute most of Old Norse literature, Old Norse...
and Anglo-Saxon literature
Anglo-Saxon literature
Old English literature encompasses literature written in Old English in Anglo-Saxon England, in the period from the 7th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066. These works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles, and others...
. He settled himself in Red Lion Square near the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, staying there for sixteen years. He advised his friend Isaac D'Israeli
Isaac D'Israeli
Isaac D'Israeli was a British writer, scholar and man of letters. He is best known for his essays, his associations with other men of letters, and for being the father of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli....
to baptize his children (Benjamin included) in order to give them a better chance in life.
History of the Anglo-Saxons
Turner's History of the Anglo-SaxonsHistory of the Anglo-Saxons
History of the Anglo-Saxons is a writing by English historian Sharon Turner written between 1799 and 1805. Under the influence of Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry he compiled the first edition of the History of the Anglo-Saxons between 1799 and 1805, and became one of the earliest...
appeared in four volumes between 1799 and 1805.
Britain at the time of original publication was involved in wars against France
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
and the idea of the Norman yoke
Norman yoke
The Norman yoke is a term that emerged in English nationalist discourse in the mid-17th century. It was a shorthand phrase, useful for attributing the oppressive aspects of feudalism in England to the impositions of William I of England, his retainers and their descendants.- History :The medieval...
(Anglo-Saxon liberty versus Norman despotism) had been around since the seventeenth century. Turner demonstrated Anglo-Saxon liberty "in the shape of a good constitution, temperate kingship, the witenagemot
Witenagemot
The Witenagemot , also known as the Witan was a political institution in Anglo-Saxon England which operated from before the 7th century until the 11th century.The Witenagemot was an assembly of the ruling class whose primary function was to advise the king and whose membership was...
, and general principles of freedom". Turner researched extensively the collections in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
and the manuscripts
Cotton library
The Cotton or Cottonian library was collected privately by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton M.P. , an antiquarian and bibliophile, and was the basis of the British Library...
of Sir Robert Cotton. In doing so he obtained a working knowledge of Anglo-Saxon.
The History had a profound impact on historiography for the succeeding fifty years. Robert Southey
Robert Southey
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
said that "so much new information was probably never laid before the public in any one historical publication". However the Edinburgh Review
Edinburgh Review
The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802, was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. It ceased publication in 1929. The magazine took its Latin motto judex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur from Publilius Syrus.In 1984, the Scottish cultural magazine New Edinburgh Review,...
in 1804 criticised Turner for a lack of discrimination and for the romantic parts of the work.
Sir Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
acknowledged his debt to Turner for his historical work in his Dedicatory Epistle to his novel Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott in 1819, and set in 12th-century England. Ivanhoe is sometimes credited for increasing interest in Romanticism and Medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages," while...
. In 1981 J. W. Burrow
J. W. Burrow
John Wyon Burrow was an English historian. In 1954 he won a history scholarship at Christ's College, Cambridge...
said Turner produced "the first modern full-length history of Saxon England...It was a genuinely pioneering work, and was much admired, and not without reason".
Historical work
Thereafter he continued the narrative in History of EnglandHistory of England
The history of England concerns the study of the human past in one of Europe's oldest and most influential national territories. What is now England, a country within the United Kingdom, was inhabited by Neanderthals 230,000 years ago. Continuous human habitation dates to around 12,000 years ago,...
(1814-29), concluding with the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. Against the emergence of the French Consulate
French Consulate
The Consulate was the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804...
, he promoted the notion of Anglo-Saxon liberty as opposed to Norman tyranny (strong since the 17th century).
These histories, especially the former, though somewhat marred by an attempt to emulate the grandiose style of Gibbon, were works of real research, opening up and to a considerable extent developing a new field of inquiry in the area of Anglo-Saxon history. For example, Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
reported the Persians called the Scythians “Sakai”, and Sharon Turner identified these very people as the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. In carefully determining their origins in the Caucasus, Turner wrote: “The migrating Scythians crossed the Araxes, passed out of Asia, and suddenly appeared in Europe in the sixth century B.C… The names Saxon, Scythian and Goth
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
are used interchangeably.”
Turner also authored a Sacred History of the World, a translation of Beowulf
Beowulf
Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
and a poem on Richard III. Turner's place as a historian has been debated by later generations of academics.
Further reading
- C. T. Berkhout and M. McC. Gatch, Anglo-Saxon Scholarship. The First Three Centuries (Boston, 1992).
- D. G. Calder, ‘Histories and Surveys of Old English Literature; a Chronological Review’, Anglo-Saxon England 10 (1982), pp. 201-244.