TURNER, JOHN [SSNE 6485]
Text source
John Turner was a graduate of Marischal College in Aberdeen who became a merchant of Danzig in the seventeenth century. He bequeathed a large legacy to establish scholarships for young poor boys between the ages of 9-15 for the study of theology. He was one of a group of Scots who established such funds under the motto "let knowledge grow from more to more and thus be the human life enriched". He donated £666 and 13 shillings in 1685 to the Marischal College restoration fund. He was connected in Danzig to William Brown, Patrick Forbes and William Linnfean? while in Scotland he was associated financially with John Shene and Alexander Lither (a Regent of Marischal College). In London his links were with Alexander and Gilbert Lorrimer. Collectively at his death his contacts owed him £86,848 (Scots) after deductions for exchange were taken into consideration.T. Fischer, The Scots in Germany (Edinburgh, 1902), p.268; S. Seliga and L. Koczy, Scotland and Poland a chapter of forgotten history, (Scotland, 1969), p.8; A. Bieganska, "Andrew Davidson (1591-1660)and his descendants in Poland", Scottish Slavonic Review, 10 (1988), p.13; A. Bieganska, "In search of tolerance, Scottish Catholics and Presbyterians in Poland", in Scottish Slavonic Review, 17, (1991), p.44; see also the Fasti Ecclesiastica, vol.1 (Aberdeen, 1889), pp.357, 359; A. Bieganska, The Learned Scots in Poland (From the Mid-Sixteenth to the close of the Eighteenth Century) in 'Canadian Slavonic Review, Vol. XLIII, No. 1, March 2001, p.4; National Archives of Scotland, CC8/8/79 260. John Turner 23 September 1690.
Service record
- POLAND-LITHUANIA, DANZIG
- Departed 1690-09-23
- Capacity MERCHANT, purpose TRADE, COMMERCE, MERCANTILE