Turner, Peter

(1586-1652), mathematician

by E. I. Carlyle, rev. H. K. Higton

© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved

Turner, Peter (1586-1652), mathematician, was born in Middlesex, the son of Peter Turner (1542-1614) and Pascha Parry, and brother of Samuel Turner. He matriculated at St Mary Hall, Oxford, on 31 October 1600, graduated BA from Christ Church on 27 June 1605, was elected a fellow of Merton in 1607, and graduated MA on 9 March 1612. On 25 July 1620 he became professor of geometry in Gresham College in London, following Henry Briggs. In 1629, at Archbishop Laud's request, he drew up the Caroline cycle to regulate the election of proctors from the various colleges. About the same date he also served on a committee established to revise the university statutes. He succeeded Henry Briggs as Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford, resigning the Gresham professorship on 20 February 1631.

On his appointment as chancellor of the university in 1631, Laud urged on the work of revising the statutes. The task was supervised by Brian Twyne but the work of final revision was entrusted to Turner. The statutes were published in 1634.

On 31 August 1636, during a royal visit, Turner received the degree of MD. This mark of the king's favour was either purchased or repaid by an ardent loyalty. In 1641 Turner was one of the first from Oxford to enlist under Sir John Byron. He was taken prisoner in a skirmish near Stow on the Wold on 10 September and imprisoned first in Banbury and later in Northampton, his belongings at Oxford being seized when the town surrendered. In 1642 he was taken to London and imprisoned in Southwark, and in July 1643 he was exchanged for some parliamentary prisoners at Oxford.

On 9 November 1648 Turner was ejected by the parliamentary visitors from his fellowship at Merton and from the Savilian professorship, in which he was succeeded by John Wallis. Being reduced to great poverty, he retired to Southwark to live with his sister, the widow of a brewer named Wats. At her house near the debtors' prison he died, unmarried, in January 1652, and was buried that month in the church of St Saviour.

Despite a good reputation as a classicist and mathematician Turner left almost no written work. Nevertheless he rejected Laud's offers of promotion to high office, preferring a scholar's life. He has recently been described by Adamson as 'more obviously a Royalist and an Anglican than an academic of any sort' (Adamson, 134).

E. I. CARLYLE, rev. H. K. HIGTON

Sources  
J. B. Easton, 'Turner, Peter', DSB
I. R. Adamson, 'The foundation and early history of Gresham College, London, 1596-1704', PhD diss., U. Cam., 1976
J. Ward, The lives of the professors of Gresham College (1740)
Foster, Alum. Oxon.
G. C. Brodrick, Memorials of Merton College, OHS, 4 (1885)
Wood, Ath. Oxon.


© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved

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