He became liberal in theology, a supporter of rational dissent, and with his congregation in favour of social and political reform.
[2] His father, John Turner (1689–1737), was a restless man, who was minister for short periods at Preston, Rivington, Northwich, Wirksworth, and Knutsford, distinguished himself on the Hanoverian side in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715.
In April 1761 he moved to Wakefield, where he continued to minister till July 1792.
His Wakefield ministry brought him into close connection with Thomas Amory, the creator of John Buncle; with Joseph Priestley, then at Leeds, whose opinions he espoused; and with Theophilus Lindsey, then vicar of Catterick, of whose policy of inviting a Unitarian secession from the Church of England he disapproved.
His manuscript criticisms suggested to Priestley the project of his Theological Repository, to which Turner contributed (1768–71) as Vigilius (Wakefield).