John Turton, F. R. S., 1735-1806

Abstract

The name of Dr John Turton may not be familiar today, but in the latter part of the eighteenth century it was both well-known and respected. Dr Johnson, with whom he was related and connected, wrote verses to his mother. During the Grand Tour which he made on a Radchffe Travelling Fellowship, he met most of the physicians in Europe and studied at Geneva, Vienna and Paris. He played a small but important part, hitherto quite unknown, in the life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Among his patients were Edward Gibbon, David Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith, Mrs Delany, George III, Queen Charlotte, and the Prince of Wales, for he became Physician in Ordinary to them, and his correspondence shows how greatly his advice was appreciated by several members of the Royal Family. His correspondence with Charles Bonnet and Sir Joseph Banks throws light on the famous dissensions in the Royal Society in the 1780’s. For all these reasons it has seemed worth while to rescue Turton from oblivion, a task which has been made both possible and pleasurable with the help of Mr R. H. Turton, M.P., Dr John Keevil, D.S.O., and Dr Bernard Gagnebin, Keeper of Manuscripts in the Library of Geneva. Ancestry and early years Dr John Turton (I) * was born in 1735, the son of Dr John Turton, a distinguished physician of Birmingham who in the previous year had married Dorothy Hickman, daughter of Gregory Hickman of Stourbridge. The Hickmans were connected with Dr Johnson, for Gregory Hickman’s mother Jane afterwards married Joseph Ford, Dr Johnson’s uncle. It was to Dorothy Hickman that Dr Johnson addressed his verses, To Miss Hickman playing on the Spinet , before he left Staffordshire for London. Mrs Turton died in 1744, and she appears to have been possessed of some fortune because John Turton inherited from her some property in Yorkshire.