TURNER, Sir Barnard (?1742-84), of Paul’s Wharf, London

Turner, after spending some years at sea, entered the sugar trade in London about 1763. During the Gordon riots in 1780 he ‘stimulated a number of gentlemen to form a group of volunteer horse, at the head of which he preserved the Bank from plunder’.2Manning & Bray, Surr. iii. 558. He was knighted on presenting an address against Fox’s East India bill. When at the general election he stood for Southwark he received £500 from secret service money.3Royal archives, Windsor. He was returned unopposed, but died 15 June 1784, less than a month after Parliament assembled. There is no record of any vote or speech by him in the House. Turner apparently died heavily in debt: according to the Gentleman’s Magazine his funeral procession was held up by ‘a creditor to a large amount’ who ‘having no bond or other security took this step in person ... in hopes of obtaining a security from some of the friends of the deceased ... The creditor, it is said, was his brother-in-law, who gave him the qualification for his seat in Parliament’; and on 1 July the court of common council for transacting City business discussed the provision of a sum ‘for the relief of the six children of the late much lamented Sir Barnard Turner’.4Gent. Mag. 1784, p. 552.