Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1816 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
1 volume, measuring about 27 x 24 x 9 cm, containing a title-leaf, an index, four blank leaves, and 174 letters and other papers pasted onto guards. There is a stiff fly-leaf at the front and another at the back. Half-bound in light-brown leather and marbled paper.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Dawson Turner was born and spent much of his life at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. He was admitted as an undergraduate at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1793, but returned to Yarmouth before graduating, in order to take his place in the family banking business.
For some years Turner's chief interest was botany, particularly mosses, and he published several works on the subject and corresponded with many of the notable botanists of his day. In later life he concentrated on antiquarian pursuits, amassing a valuable collection of historical documents and autographs, as well as a substantial library which was eventually dispersed in a series of sales. He was a Fellow of various learned bodies, including the Royal Society, the Linnaean Society, and the Society of Antiquaries.
In 1796 Turner married Mary Palgrave, by whom he had eight surviving children. Mary Turner and her daughters were talented amateur artists; they were tutored in drawing by John Sell Cotman and also mastered the arts of etching and lithography. Between them they produced a significant number of sketches and prints, especially portraits and architectural studies, examples of which were often used by their father to embellish his books.
Repository
Archival history
See the general note under O.13.1. The following letters were removed from the volume before it came to the Library. Their current locations, where known, are shown in brackets (NRO = Norfolk Record Office).
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 2 Jan. 1816.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 14 Jan. 1816.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 28 Jan. 1816.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 28 Mar. 1816.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 21 Apr. 1816.
Letter from J. S. Cotman, May 1816 (NRO, MC2487/16?, dated May 1814).
Letter from T. J. Mathias, 12 July 1816.
Letter from Hudson Gurney, 15 July 1816 (TURN III A10/5).
Letter from Mary Turner, 20 July 1816 (TURN III A33/2).
Letter from Mary Turner, 23 July 1816 (TURN III A33/3).
Letter from Mary Turner, 28 July 1816 (TURN III A33/4).
Letter from Hudson Gurney, 23 Nov. 1816 (TURN III A10/6).
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 26 Nov. 1816.
Letter from Hudson Gurney, 30 Nov. 1816 (TURN III A10/7).
Letter from Hudson Gurney, 14 Dec. 1816 (TURN III A10/8).
Letter from Hudson Gurney, 26 Dec. 1816 (TURN III A10/9).
The undated letter from Hooker is listed in the volume Index between letters of 21 April and 26 November.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
On the spine is stamped ‘CORRESPONDENCE | JAN.–DEC. | 1816’.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The documents are numbered in the order in which they stand. In one case different numbers were mistakenly given to parts of the same document when the contents were originally numbered. This superfluous number (No. 39) is now marked ‘Number not used’.
Conditions of access and use area
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Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
- French
- German
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Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
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Dates of creation revision deletion
This description was created by A. C. Green in 2021.