Dawson Turner

Dawson Turner FRS FSA (18 October 1775 – 21 June 1858)[1] was an English banker, botanist and antiquary.

He specialized in the botany of cryptogams and was the father-in-law of the botanist William Jackson Hooker and of the historian Francis Palgrave.

He was educated at North Walsham Grammar School (now Paston College), Norfolk and at Barton Bendish as a pupil of the botanist Robert Forby.

[3] Through his first wife Mary, he met Captain George Manby, amateur artist, inventor and barrack-master of Yarmouth.

He and his children were taught drawing by renowned Norfolk artist John Sell Cotman who became a good friend.

Portrait of Turner, c. 1816
Print made by: Hannah Sarah Brightwen, After: John Philip Davis. British Museum
Mary Turner, engraved by W.C. Edwards from a painting made in 1814