had a garden. He made his will on 26 Feb. 1567, and in a letter to Cecil of 13 May 1568, complaining of the delay in the receipt of his dividends from his deanery, he describes himself as old and sickly. He died at his house in Crutched Friars on 7 July following, and was buried at St. Olave's, Hart Street, where the inscription on the monument erected to him by his wife records his ability in science and theological controversy. He married Jane, daughter of George Auder, alderman of Cambridge, and by her had a son Peter, who became a physician; and two daughters: Winifred, married to John Parker (1534–1592) [q. v.], archdeacon of Ely; and Elizabeth, married to John Whitehead of Hunston, Suffolk (Cooper). His widow married Richard Cox (1500–1581) [q. v.], bishop of Ely.
Turner was a zealous botanist, learned, and of sound judgment in scientific matters. He was the first Englishman who studied plants scientifically, and his ‘Herbal’ marks the start of the science of botany in England. He is said to have introduced into this country lucern, which he called horned clover (ib.) His works on theological controversies are violent and racily written. While his wit was somewhat broad, his learning is undoubted and is warmly acknowledged by eminent men of his own time, such as Conrad Gesner, to whose museum he contributed, and in more modern days by John Ray. Nor was his vigour in controversy belied by his life; he suffered for his principles, and never, so far as is known, was false to them, for the suggestion (ib.) that he probably recanted soon after leaving Cambridge appears to be wholly without foundation.
His known works, all of which, except those otherwise noted, are in the British Museum, are, the titles being somewhat shortened: 1. ‘A comparison between the olde learnynge and the newe,’ a translation from the ‘Novæ Doctrinæ ad Veterem Collatio’ of Urbanus Rhegius, London, 8vo, 1537, 1538, 1548; reprinted in Richmond's ‘Fathers of the English Church’ (iv. 599 sq.). 2. ‘Unio Dissidentium’ [1538], dedicated to Thomas, lord Wentworth (not in Brit. Mus.), see Bale and Tanner. 3. ‘Libellus de re herbaria novus,’ London, 8vo, 1538; reprinted in facsimile with life of Turner by B. D. Jackson, 4to, 1877. 4. ‘The huntynge and fyndynge out of the Romishe Fox … hyd among the Bysshoppes of Englande,’ Basle, 8vo, 1543; published under the assumed name of ‘William Wraghton,’ dedicated to Henry VIII; reprinted by Robert Potts from a copy at Trinity College, Cambridge, with Turner's name and different title-page, 8vo, 1851. 5. ‘Historia de naturis herbarum,’ Cologne, 1544, noted by Bumald, and not otherwise known. 6. ‘Avium præcipuarum … historia ex optimis quibusque scriptoribus contexta,’ Cologne, 8vo, 1544, dedicated to Henry VIII. 7. ‘Dialogus de avibus et earum nominibus per Dn. Gybertum Longolium,’ edited by Turner, Cologne, 1544, 8vo. 8. ‘The rescuynge of the Romishe Fox … deuised by steven gardiner’ at Winchester, 8vo, 1545, ‘by me Hanse hit prik,’ with dedication by ‘William Wraghton;’ a different edition, noted by Ames, ‘Topographical Antiquities’ (iii. 1557; noted by Bale probably as ‘Contra Gardineri technas’). 9. Preface to ‘The sum of divinitie,’ by Robert Hutton or Hutten [q. v.] (sometime Turner's scholar and servant), 1548. 10. ‘The names of herbes in Greke, Latin, Englishe, Duche, and Frenche … gathered by W. T.’ London, 1548, 8vo. 11. ‘A newe Dialogue … examination of the Messe,’ London, 8vo [1548]. 12. ‘A Preservative or Triacle agaynst the poyson of Pelagius,’ London, 8vo [1551]. 13. ‘A newe Herball wherein are conteyned the names of Herbes,’ London, fol. 1551. 14. ‘The huntyng of the Romyshe Wolfe,’ London, 8vo [1554?] (not in Brit. Mus.), Bodleian Library; reprinted as ‘The Hunting of the Fox and the Wolfe’ (Ames, iii. 1605). 15. ‘The booke of Merchants newly made by the lord Plantapole’ before 1555 (see Foxe's Acts and Monuments, ed. Townsend, v. 567). 16. ‘The Spiritual Nosegay’ (see ib.). 17. ‘A new Booke of Spirituall Physick for dyverse diseases of the Nobilitie and Gentlemen of Englande,’ ‘Rome’ (Basle?), 8vo, 1555. 18. ‘The seconde parte of W. T.'s Herball …’ 19. ‘Hereunto is joined a book of the bath of Baeth,’ &c., Cologne, 8vo, 1562; the Bath book is also adjoined with additions to the ‘Herbal’ of 1562, and is printed in Vicary's ‘Treasure for Englishmen’ (4to, 1580, 1589) and later editions. 20. ‘A new Boke of the natures and properties of all Wines commonlye used here in England,’ whereunto is annexed 21. ‘The booke of “the powers … of the three most renowned Triacles,”’ of which an inaccurate edition had already appeared, London, 8vo, 1568. 22. ‘The first and seconde partes of the Herbal … with the thirde part: also a booke of the bath,’ &c., u.s., Cologne, fol. 1568. 23. ‘A catechisme,’ a translation of the Heidelberg catechism with W. T.'s name, London, 8vo, 1572; without his name, 8vo, 1578. Also letters, as a long one to Conrad Gesner on English fishes in Gesner's ‘Historia Animalium’ (iii. 1294 sq., with date 1557; one to Bullinger in ‘Zurich Letters,’ 2nd ser. p. 124; and some
