Jerom Turner

Son of George Turner was born at Yeovill in Somersetshire, educated in Grammar learning there, made his first entry into the University in Easter term 1633 aged 18 years, and soon after being made Batler of S. Edmunds Hall, took the degree of Bach. of Arts as a Member thereof, in the year 1636 and compleated it by Determination. Not long after he became Schoolmaster of Beer (belonging to Seaton in Devon) where also he preached as an Assistant to his very good Friend Hugh Gundrey his Fathers kinsman, for the space of two years. Thence he removed to Axmonth in the said County, where he served as an Assistant also to Will. Hook then Minister of that place, (afterwards in New England, and at length Master of the Savoy in the Strand near London) with whom he continued about two years more. From thence he removed to Compton two miles from the place of his nativity, where he continued a while, and thence removed to Sir Thom. Trenchard to be his Chaplain, continuing there till 1641, about which time, the Civ. War breaking out, he was forced to fly to Southampton for refuge, where he continued during the heat of the Wars, and preached with the great approbation of the Presbyterian Ministers and People there. So much, it seems, they were taken with his Sermons, that they earnestly perswaded him to print an exposition he had made on the first Chapter of the Epistle of S. Paul to the Ephesians, but he could not be prevailed upon to do it. The Wars being over, and Neitherbury a great country Parish in Dorsetshire being void of a Minister, he, by the sollicitations of friends went thither, and became their Pastor in the beginning of Oct. 1646, where he continued a constant Preacher, doing good in his zealous way to his dying day. His love to learning was very great, and his delight to exercise himself was greater than his weak body could bear. He had a strong memory, which he maintained good to the last by temperance. He was well skill’d in Greek and Hebrew, was a fluent ((f))((f)) Pastor vigilantiss. doctrina & pietate insignis, &c. So Fred. Lossius a Physician of Dorchester in his Observationes Medicinales. Lond. 1672. oct. lib. 2. observat. 7. p. 121. Preacher, but too much addicted to Calvinisme. He hath transmitted to posterity,

A Breast-plate for the keeping of the heart; being the substance of certaine Sermons on Prov. 4.23. former part. Lond. 1660. in oct.

A rich treasurie for the promises, being the substance of other Sermons on Micah 7.19. Lond. 1660. oct. Some, or all, of these Sermons, were published in 1650. in oct. Which two treatises (The Breast-plate and Rich treasurie) were published by Hugh Gundrey beforemention’d and one Joseph Crabb, who dedicated them to William Lord Sydenham, a member of Olivers Council, one of his Lords, and sometimes a Gent. Com. of Trin. Coll. in this University.

Exposition on the first Chapt. of the Epist. of S. Paul to the Ephesians—whether this was published after his death I cannot tell. He paid his last debt to nature on the 27 of Novemb. in sixteen hundred fifty and five,1655. and was buried (I suppose) in the Church of Neitherbury, having before married Joane, the Daugh. of George Scullard of Rumsey in Hampshire, and been appointed an Assistant to the Commissioners of Dorsetshire and Pool, for the ejection of such whom the godly party called scandalous, ignorant and insufficient Ministers and Schoolmasters.