Life
Born in Pentonville, Turner was the eldest son of William and Ann Turner of Yorkshire 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.
Read more about this topic: Sharon Turner
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Poor vaunt of life indeed,
Were man but formed to feed
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—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
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“All conservatives are such from personal defects. They have been effeminated by position or nature, born halt and blind, through luxury of their parents, and can only, like invalids, act on the defensive. But strong natures, backwoodsmen, New Hampshire giants, Napoleons, Burkes, Broughams, Websters, Kossuths, are inevitable patriots, until their life ebbs, and their defects and gout, palsy and money, warp them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)