William Turner (naturalist)

William Turner (about 1508 to 1568) was an English divine, reformer, physician and natural historian, called the father of English botany. Born in Morpeth, Northumberland, he studied at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, from 1526 to 1533, took his degrees, and became a fellow and senior treasurer of the hall. He published Libellus de re herbaria in 1538 and later translated it into English because he believed herbalists were not sharing their knowledge. He studied medicine at Ferrara and Bologna from 1540 to 1542, was a friend of the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner, and became physician to the Earl of Emden and later chaplain and physician to the Duke of Somerset. He served as dean of Wells Cathedral from 1551 to 1553. An early herbalist and ornithologist and one of the first parson-naturalists in England, he saw his works condemned under Henry VIII and under Mary I.