Samuel Turner (died c. 1647) was an English physician and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

at various times between 1625 and 1644. He fought on the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

side during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

. Turner was the elder son of the physician and

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

Member of Parliament Peter Turner, and was the brother of the mathematician Peter Turner. He was educated at

St Mary Hall, Oxford St Mary Hall was a medieval academic halls of the University of Oxford, academic hall of the University of Oxford. It was associated with Oriel College, Oxford, Oriel College from 1326 to 1545, but functioned independently from 1545 until it ...

being awarded BA in 1602 and at

St Alban Hall, Oxford St Alban Hall, sometimes known as St Alban's Hall or Stubbins, was one of the medieval halls of the University of Oxford, and one of the longest-surviving. It was established in the 13th century, acquired by neighbouring Merton College in the ...

being awarded MA in 1604. He was made a Doctor of Medicine at the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

in 1611. In 1625 Turner was elected Member of Parliament for

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, Salisbury and north-northeast of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hi ...

. He immediately made himself prominent with attacks on the

Duke of Buckingham Duke of Buckingham, referring to the market town of Buckingham, England, is an extinct title that has been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. There were creations of double dukedoms of Bucki ...

, calling him ''"the cause of all their grievances"'' and declaring that it was unfit that he should hold so many great offices. His speeches so angered

King Charles King Charles may refer to: Kings A number of kings of Albania, Alençon, Anjou, Austria, Bohemia, Croatia, England, France, Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, Ireland, Jerusalem, Naples, Navarre, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sardinia, Scotland, Sicily, S ...

that the King sent a letter to the House demanding justice. When the House ordered Turner to explain his words he did so by letter without appearing in person, and illness - perhaps diplomatic - prevented him taking his seat again before Parliament was dissolved. Turner was next chosen to represent Shaftesbury in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short session of only three weeks. After 11 years of per ...

as a replacement for Edward Hyde, who had been elected for more than one constituency). He was re-elected MP for Shaftesbury in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

in November 1640. Turner, unlike his father, took the side of the King and his ministers rather than against them. He was one of the minority who voted against Strafford's

attainder In English criminal law, attainder was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditary titles, but ...

, and when the Civil War broke out immediately joined the Royal army and was commissioned as a captain. He led a Royalist force to victory over the Parliamentarians in a skirmish near

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Thames, in the South Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, Berkshire, Reading, west of M ...

in 1643. He was disabled from sitting in the Commons for his Royalist sympathies in 1644, and sat in the King's Oxford Parliament when it met later that year. The Oxford antiquary Anthony Wood described Turner as "a man of very loose principles", though this probably referred only to the fact that he had an illegitimate son. He died in about 1647.

References

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

*D Brunton & D H Pennington, ''Members of the Long Parliament'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954) {{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Samuel 1640s deaths Year of birth missing English MPs 1625 English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 Oxford Parliaments Cavaliers Members of the Parliament of England for Shaftesbury