228 Biographical Memoir of the late Dr Turner. 



timate friend of his manhood ; and I am sure I should nowhere 

 meet with so many willing and affectionate listeners as in this 

 Society, where all can well appreciate his scientific excellence, 

 and not a few recall him as a beloved member of their social 

 circle. 



Our colonial settlements, vastly as they have contributed to 

 the materials of science, have added but few to its votaries. The 

 subject of the present memoir is a rare exception. Dr Turner 

 ■was born in Jamaica in July 1796. His father, Mr Button 

 Smith Turner, an Englishman by birth, was a prosperous 

 planter in that island ; and his mother, Mary Gale Redwar, was 

 a Creole of English pai'entage. Edward was the second son of 

 a numerous family, of whom seven are still living. In early 

 childhood his parents brought him to Britain, which he never 

 subsequently left till his education was finished.* For many 

 years Dr Turner resided in Bath or its neighbourhood, and he 

 received the rudiments of knowledge first at a lady's school, and 

 afterwards at the grammar-school of that city, then conducted 

 by the Reverend Nathaniel Morgan. During this period, which 

 extended till his fifteenth year, he seems to have shown no re- 

 markable talent, and to have given no promise whatever of fu- 

 ture assiduity or eminence. He resided constantly with a rela- 

 tive of his mother, a country gentleman of high principle and 

 honourable feeling ; Avho paid great attention to his moral cha- 

 racter and conduct, but who, being himself ardently devoted to 

 the pursuits of the field, and sports of the country, could not 

 be expected to set his ward the example of study, or of the love 

 of learning. It is not vminteresting to trace the total want of 

 connexion between his early habits, acquired at this time under 

 his guardian and teachers in Bath, and the course into which he 

 was gradually turned in after life by his own unaided judgment 

 and efforts. When he left the grammar-school, he was remark- 

 able for nothing but a mild, engaging, affectionate disposition, a 

 very small amount of learning for his years, and a great fond- 

 ness for angling, and other country sports and exercises. Ten 

 years later, he was distinguished among those of his standing 



* His parents returned soon after to Jamaica, and remained there till Mr 

 Turner's death in 1816. 



