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'''Samuel Turner''' (19{{nbsp}}April 1759{{snd}}2{{nbsp}}January 1802) [[Royal Society|FRS]] was an English Asiatic traveller and a cousin of [[Warren Hastings]], the first [[Governor-General of India|Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal)]].

==Early life==
Turner was born in [[Gloucestershire]], England.

==India and Tibet==
After becoming a cadet with the [[East India Company]] (EIC) in 1780, Turner was subsequently promoted to [[ensign (rank)|ensign]]. Promotion followed to lieutenant on 8{{nbsp}}August 1781 and to regimental captain on 18{{nbsp}}March 1799. In February 1782, news having reached the headquarters of the EIC in [[Calcutta]] of the reincarnation of the [[Panchen Lama]], Warren Hastings proposed despatching a mission to Tibet with a message of congratulation designed to strengthen the amicable relations established by [[George Bogle (diplomat)|George Bogle]] during his 1774 visit to Tibet. With the assent of the EIC Court of Directors, Turner was appointed chief of the Tibet mission on 9{{nbsp}}January 1783 with fellow EIC employee and amateur artist [[Samuel Davis (orientalist)|Samuel Davis]] as "Draftsman and Surveyor".<ref>{{cite book|title=Views of Medieval Bhutan: the diary and drawings of Samuel Davis, 1783|first1=Samuel|last1=Davis|first2=Michael|last2=Aris|year=1982|publisher=Serindia|url=https://archive.org/stream/ViewsOfMedievalBhutanTheDiaryAndDrawingsOfSamuelDavis1783MichaelAris/Views%20of%20Medieval%20Bhutan%20--%20the%20Diary%20and%20Drawings%20of%20Samuel%20Davis%201783%20Michael%20Aris#page/n29/mode/2up|page=31}}</ref> Following the route previously taken by Bogle, Turner arrived in [[Bhutan]] in June 1783 and stayed at the summer place of the [[Druk Desi]], the country's ruler until 8{{nbsp}}September. He then moved on to arrive at [[Shigatse]] in Tibet's [[Ü-Tsang|Tsang Province]] on 22{{nbsp}}September 1783 where an audience with the infant Panchen Lama followed on 4{{nbsp}}December. Turner returned to the Governor-General's camp at [[Patna]] in 1784 where he reported that although unable to visit the Tibetan capital at [[Lhasa]], he had received a promise that merchants sent to the country from India would be encouraged.{{sfn|Younghusband|1910|page=29}} For his efforts in Bhutan and Tibet, Turner received the sum of £500.00 from the EIC.{{sfn|Dodsley|1803|page=493}}

Turner served with distinction at the first [[Siege of Seringapatam (1792)|Siege of Seringapatam]] in 1792 in command of a troop of Governor-General [[Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis|Lord Cornwallis]]' bodyguard of cavalry and later carried out a mission to the court of [[Tipu Sultan]].{{sfn|Dodsley|1803|page=493}} He accumulated a large amount of wealth in India and after a spell as a captain in the EIC's 3rd European regiment he returned to Europe where he purchased a country seat in Gloucestershire.

On 15{{nbsp}}January 1801 he was elected a fellow of the [[Royal Society]] then on 21{{nbsp}}December the same year, while walking at night in the neighbourhood of [[Fetter Lane]], London, he was seized with a paralytic [[stroke]], and was taken to the workhouse in [[Fleet Street|Shoe Lane]]. His name and address in St. James's Place were found; but he was too ill to be moved, and died on 2{{nbsp}}January 1802. Buried in [[St James's Church, Piccadilly]], his property in Gloucestershire went to his sisters, one of whom married [[Joseph White (orientalist)|Joseph White]], Regius Professor of Hebrew at the [[University of Oxford]].{{sfn|Dodsley|1803|page=494}}

==Works==
Turner was the author of ''[https://archive.org/details/accountofembassy00turn An Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet, containing a Narrative of a Journey through Bootan and part of Tibet]'', which was published in London in 1800. A French translation published in Paris followed the same year followed by a German translation at Berlin and Hamburg the next year. The book was the first account of a visit to Tibet by a British author as the accounts of Bogle and Manning were not published until 1875.

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
* {{cite book|first=Robert|last=Dodsley|author-link=Robert Dodsley|title=The Annual Register, or a View of the history, politicks and literature of the year...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jaZGAAAAcAAJ|year=1803|publisher=Dodsley}}
* {{cite book|first=Francis|last=Younghusband|author-link=Francis Younghusband|title=India and Tibet: a history of the relations which have subsisted between the two countries from the time of Warren Hastings to 1910; with a particular account of the mission to Lhasa of 1904 |url=https://archive.org/details/indiatibethistor00younrich|year=1910|publisher=John Murray|location=London}}

'''Attribution'''
*{{DNB |last=Wheeler |first= Stephen Edward |wstitle=Turner, Samuel (1749?-1802) |volume=57 |pages=354–355 }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Samuel}}
[[Category:1759 births]]
[[Category:1802 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Gloucestershire]]
[[Category:British diplomats]]
[[Category:Ambassadors to Tibet]]
[[Category:British East India Company civil servants]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Tibetologists]]
[[Category:Burials at St James's Church, Piccadilly]]

Samuel Turner (diplomat) - Revision history

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