(1748 - 1805) of Battlesden, Beds, 1st surv. s. of Sir Edward Turner, 2nd Bt. of Ambrosden, Oxon; educ. Eton and Hertford Oxf. 1766; L.Inn 1765; m. 1785 Frances Howell; suc. fa. 1766 as 3rd Bt., and gt. uncle 1775, taking additional name of Page; MP 1784 - 1805.
1768 - 9 [dep. Geneva 16 Aug. 1768] Turin, Milan (by 31 Aug.), Parma, Reggio, Modena, Bologna, Florence (10 Sep. - after 22 Oct.), Naples (by 15 Nov. - Dec. 1768), Rome (by 25 Jan. - Feb. 1769), Venice (11 Mar.) [Vienna, Apr.]
Turner described his tour of 1768 - 9 in a series of stilted and dutiful letters addressed to his uncle James Leigh (Turner letters MSS). He travelled with Richard Paul Jodrell, and William Patoun was their guide. On 1 October he wrote from Florence, saying that the 5th Duke of Devonshire was there and Sir Watkin Williams Wynn was expected; he had already passed through 'Parma, Regio, Modena, & Bologna, in all which towns I saw several very fine original pictures, as Mr Patoun tells me, for I do not pretend to be a judge myself'; he was then planning to set out on 15 October for Naples. But he was still in Florence on 21 October, when he attended, with Jodrell and Patoun, the dinner held to mark Horace Mann's investiture as Knight of the Bath.1 He was in Naples by 15 November,2 and wrote on the 29th (when he was about to dine with Lord Exeter) saying he proposed returning to Rome at the end of December. On 25 January and 16 February 1769 he wrote from Rome, where he had seen the funeral of Pope Clement XIII and had evidently sat to Batoni. His fine three-quarter-length portrait, which must have been painted in 1769,is nevertheless dated 1768 (Manchester AG: Clark/Bowron 319). By 11 March he was in Venice with Patoun.3
1. Gazz.Tosc. Wal.Corr., 23:60. 2. SP 93/24 (Hamilton, 15 Nov. 1768). 3. ASV is 759.