The son of a talented artist turned clergyman, Turton came into considerable property in Yorkshire and Lancashire in 1817. At the general election in the following year he successfully contested Hedon ‘on independent principles unconnected with any party’. By keeping ‘open house’, he outbid the corporation candidates and assisted the return of Robert Farrand as his colleague.2Hull Advertiser, 23 May 1818; M. T. Craven, New Hist. Hedon, 162.
In Parliament he gave a silent support to government voting with them on Wyndham Quin, 29 Mar., and against Tierney’s censure motion, 18 May, and in the minority only on the motion to repeal the coal duties, 20 May 1819. He did not stand for re-election in 1820, doubtless because of the expense involved at Hedon. He died at Koblenz, 12 Nov. 1857.3Gent. Mag. (1857), i. 502.