Clan Rising

Turner

The lathe.

Origin
North West, England
Famous bearer
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), painter
Register
English family
Territory of Turner

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Turner

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Turner community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Turner has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Turner clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

Help rebuild the Turner clan →

What does the Turner name mean?

Occupational, lathe-turner; Norman tournament sense also feeds the pool.

The history of Turner

J. M. W. Turner was a Covent Garden barber's son who watched the river all his life and painted the single most-loved English painting of the nineteenth century, The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838.

Champions of the Turner name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

Step Into History

Walk the streets and seats the Turner name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

Notable bearers of the Turner name

  • Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), painter

Stories of Turner

Frequently asked

What does the surname Turner mean?

Occupational, lathe-turner; Norman tournament sense also feeds the pool. J.

Where does the Turner family come from?

The Turner family is rooted in North West and West Midlands, in England. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Turner family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Turner name has been concentrated in City of York, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, East Riding & the Humber and London. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Turner a England surname?

Yes, Turner is a England surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is England, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

How old is the Turner surname?

J. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Turner name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Turner family known for?

The lathe. J.

Who is the most famous Turner?

The best-known bearer of the Turner name is Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), painter. Their life and connection to the family are profiled in full on the dedicated champion page.

What stories are told about the Turner family?

The Turner family is associated with The Fighting Temeraire. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of the Fighting Temeraire?

On the afternoon of Wednesday the fifth of September 1838, on the Thames at Rotherhithe in east London, the ninety-eight-gun second-rate ship of the line HMS Temeraire, twenty-three years out of front-line Royal Navy service, sold by Admiralty auction to the breakers' yard of John Beatson at Rotherhithe for £5,530, was towed up the Thames from Sheerness on the Medway by two paddle-tugs to the breakers' wharf. Temeraire, launched at Chatham in 1798, had been the second ship in Nelson's weather column at Trafalgar on the twenty-first of October 1805, immediately astern of HMS Victory; she had taken the surrender of the French Redoutable and the spanish San Justo in the action that killed Nelson. The event is dated to 1838.

Where is the Turner surname found today?

England is the primary historical home of the Turner surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same England origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Turner family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Turner family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of England so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Turner family today?

The seat for the head of the Turner family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.

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