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Author: Turner, Daniel

Biography:

 

TURNER, Daniel (1710-98: ODNB)

He was born at Blackwater Farm near St. Albans, Hertfordshire, on 1 Mar. 1710, but the names of his parents are not known. He was educated by Philip James at Hemel Hempstead with a view to the dissenting ministry, and later kept a boarding-school there. A brother, James, also became a schoolmaster in St. Albans. He was an occasional preacher at Baptist Chapels and was invited to become minister at Hosiers Lane Chapel, Reading (1741-8) and then at Abingdon, Berkshire (1748-94). He received an honorary MA from the Baptist College, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He married first Anne Fanch on 8 Apr. 1729, at St. Mary’s, Hemel Hempstead. They had two sons. She died in 1744. He then married Elizabeth Lucas, widow, on 11 Nov. 1748 at St. Mary’s, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire. There was no further issue. He died at Abingdon on 5 Sept. 1798 and was buried in the Baptist graveyard there. He published Divine Songs, Hymns, and Other Poems (1747) but is probably better known for the additional 21 verses he added to the hymn of his brother-in-law and fellow Baptist minister, Rev. Joseph Fanch (1704-68), “Beyond the glittering, starry globes” (first published, Gospel Magazine June 1776, 287, and published also in Poems [1794]). Theologically, he was close to a number of moderate Calvinists and Baptists. Like John Collett Ryland, he advocated open communion in several works: A Compendium of Social Religion (1772) and A Modest Plea for Free Communion (1772). He shared many of Robert Robinson’s views defending dissent and particularly admired Arcana (1774). He later urged dissenters to avoid radicalism in An Exhortation to Peace, Loyalty, and the Support of Government (1792). Other works included various sermons, Essays on Important Subjects (1786), Letters Religious and Moral (1793), and Free Thoughts on the Spirit of Free Inquiry in Religion (1793). He added a short essay on genius to his Devotional Poetry Vindicated (1785). (ODNB 15 Oct. 2023; DNB; Lewis, 2: 1125; Chalmers 30: 90-91; Miller 202; Julian 139-40, 1188; Protestant Dissenters Magazine, Feb. 1799, 41-45, Mar. 87-8; ancestry.co.uk 15 Oct. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 15 Oct. 2023; GM Sept. 1798, 815; N&Q 16 Apr. 1859, 326; Robert W. Oliver, Baptist Quarterly 29 [1981], 77-9; Lon Graham, Baptist Quarterly 52 [2020], 1-9) AA

 

Books written (1):

Henley: [no publisher: printed by G. Norton], 1794