Turner 1

JANE TURNER (fl. 1653)

Jane Turner's autobiographical Choice Experiences (1653) written at a time of religious upheaval in England, tells of her Presbyterian childhood in Newcastle, Berwick and London, her conversion to the Baptists, her brief spell with the Quakers and her decision to leave them and return to the Baptist fold.

In 1654, the Quaker preacher Thomas Burrough, though he himself had once had doubts, wrote very unsympathetically of Jane, who had questioned the existence of God in her despair. It is noteworthy that although she can be regarded as a conservative in her religious views, Jane presents that experience as quite separate from that of her husband. Of the radical religious groups of the time the Quakers started almost exclusively in the North, where Burrough travelled a good deal. He takes pride in this in terms which express some of the thought behind the present compilation:

'O thou North of England, who art counted as desolate and barren, and reckoned the least of the nations, yet out of thee did the branch spring and the star rise which gives light unto all the region round about.'

This was written in 1655 and taken from Burrough's works, published (1672) in the sonorous prose of the time as: The Memorable Works of a Son of Thunder and Consolation.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
JANE TURNER (fl. 1653) Jane Turner's autobiographical Choice Experiences (1653) written at a time of religious upheaval in England, tells of her Presbyterian childhood in Newcastle, Berwick and London, her conversion to the Baptists, her brief spell with the Quakers and her decision to leave them and return to the Baptist fold. In 1654, the Quaker preacher Thomas Burrough, though he himself had once had doubts, wrote very unsympathetically of Jane, who had questioned the existence of God in her despair. It is noteworthy that although she can be regarded as a conservative in her religious views, Jane presents that experience as quite separate from that of her husband. Of the radical religious groups of the time the Quakers started almost exclusively in the North, where Burrough travelled a good deal. He takes pride in this in terms which express some of the thought behind the present compilation: 'O thou North of England, who art counted as desolate and barren, and reckoned the least of the nations, yet out of thee did the branch spring and the star rise which gives light unto all the region round about.' This was written in 1655 and taken from Burrough's works, published (1672) in the sonorous prose of the time as: The Memorable Works of a Son of Thunder and Consolation.
Return to Index	On to next Author