Person: Turner, Peter

Peter Turner was an English scholar who held two mathematical chairs, but published no mathematics.

Turner became a fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1607, holding the fellowship until 1648.
Sir John Byron began to enlist troops to support the King and Turner, a staunch Royalist, was one of the first to join Sir John Byron.
Turner had been taken prisoner by the Parliamentary forces in one of the skirmishes and taken to London where he was imprisoned in Southwark.
However in 1643 there was an exchange of prisoners between Parliament's side and the King's side and Turner was allowed to return to join the King in Oxford.
On 9 November 1648 representatives of Parliament removed Turner from his fellowship at Merton and from the Savilian chair of Geometry.
Turner's quality as a mathematician cannot be judged as he left no mathematical publications but we know he wrote very stylish Latin! One might reasonably ask how someone who left behind no evidence of mathematical ability came to hold two of the major mathematical chairs in England.
Turner was a highly active member of this committee and so came to Laud's notice.
Through Laud, Turner gained the appointment to the Savilian chair of Geometry at Oxford.

Born 1586, London, England. Died January 1652, Southwark, London, England.

View full biography at MacTutor

Origin England

Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0!

O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive