William Turton

Biography

He was born at Olveston, Gloucestershire and was educated at Oriel College, Oxford. He commenced in practice as a physician at Swansea, where he worked for fifteen years. He then moved in turn to Dublin, Teignmouth, and Torquay. He devoted his leisure time to natural history, especially conchology. He published several illustrated shell books, and a translation of Gmelin's edition of Linnaeus' Systema Naturae in 1806. His works on conchology have been described as "seminal".

In 1817, while he was a physician at Teignmouth, he treated Tom Keats, youngest brother of the Romantic poet John Keats, for consumption.

He moved to Bideford, Devon, in 1831, and died there. His shell collection is now located at the Smithsonian Institution.

The bivalve genus Turtonia (J. Alder, 1848) and the species Galeomma turtoni are named for him.

Bibliography

• (free)
• (free)
• A Medical Glossary; in which the words in the various branches of medicine are deduced from their original languages, and explained (London, 1797, second edition 1802).
• (free)
• A Conchological Dictionary of the British Islands, by W. Turton, assisted by his daughter (London, 1819).

References

Sources

• Mullens and Swann – A Bibliography of British Ornithology --

References

1. (3 June 2020). "W. Turton". Colligo.
2. Gigante, Denise. (2011). "The Keats Brothers: The Life of John and George". Harvard University Press.
3. "Turtonia Alder, 1848".
4. Turton, W.. (1825). "Description of some new British shells.". Zoological Journal.