Turton

Submitted by edpope on

12.5.1809 dine at Johnson's, w. Dr Turton / 14.12.1809 call on Theobald, Wordsworth & Turton, w. L(ouisa) H(olcrof)t & M(ary) J(ane)

The Turton at Johnson's was wrongly transcribed as Tuston on GD website. It was very likely William Turton DNB 1762-1835 conchologist. In 1805 Joseph Johnson published an edition of Oliver Goldsmith's History of the Earth and Animated Nature indexed by Dr Turton, and in 1807 Lackington published Dr Turton's translation of Linnaeus. In 1806 Dr Turton offered a gold and a silver medal for the best poetical effusions on Lord Nelson. Turton was based in Swansea where he apparently had his own printing press (see bbti) and the DNB suggests he had already moved to Dublin by 1809 but I found newspaper reports of his presence in Swansea in 1811. Both were some distance from London.

The Turton that Godwin called on seven months later with his wife and the recently widowed Louisa Holcroft was probably Thomas Turton History of Parliament 1764-1844 MP for Southwark 1806-1812. Their first call was on Theobald, a bill broker (see his person record on GD wbsite) and the second on Richard Wordsworth a solicitor. Turton was a barrister and the Clerk of Juries in the Court of Common Pleas, as well as being a brash and populist MP independent of government and opposition. He was made a baronet in 1796 for suppressing riots in St George's Fields when he was Shertiff of Southwark. The only two Turtons in Holdens trade directory for London 1811 were a farrier and a truss maker. In the Court section there was a John Turton Esq. Clapham