Proof of Our Identity
Through Sharon Turner
courtesy The Covenant Message (abridged)

Who Was Sharon Turner

Sharon Turner was a widely-read and profoundly learned historian. He was also an eminent London attorney, and was in practice for himself in the Temple until failing health forced him to retire. For the remainder of his life he used his talents in studying, for historical purposes, the origin of the Anglo-Saxons from the Cottonian Library of the British Museum, He was born in London in 1768 and died there in 1847.

In his day, and for a number of years afterwards, he was constantly quoted by historians as an authority upon Anglo-Saxon origins, life and literature. The "English Cyclopaedia" published in 1857, says of him: "He was the first English author who had taken the pains, or had had sufficient knowledge, to investigate the valuable remains left to us in Anglo-Saxon records. He consulted the original manuscripts with great industry and intelligence, and the result has been that though his views have been more than once assailed, they have been generally sustained, and that the study of Anglo-Saxon literature has been more appreciated, and the authenticity of his materials more generally understood. The work "History of the Anglo-Saxons" soon took a permanent place in the historical literature of the country." To which the Dictionary, of National Biography adds that his writings are "almost as complete a revelation as the discoveries of Layard."

His Credentials

P.W. Thompson, in his book "Britain in Prophecy and History", writes: "From the fact of his having enjoyed a pension of £300 during the last years of his life it would appear that his contemporaries thought highly of him." Sir Edmund Gosse speaks of him as "a careful imitator of Gibbon, who illustrated the Anglo-Saxon period of our chronicles." Lord Macaulay refers to Turner's History as an authority consulted by him in his researches concerning Sedgemoor. The elder Disraeli wrote of Turner in terms of warm appreciation: "flume despatches, comparatively in a few pages, a subject which has afforded to the fervid diligence of my friend, Sharon Turner, volumes precious to the antiquary, the lawyer and the philosopher," (page 68) Again, on pages of 166-167: "Now, remembering in what estimate Southey held his 'Life of Wesley', when regarded in its relative order of importance as contrasted with other of his own works, it is illuminating to be faced with the fact that Robert Southey, D.C.L. Poet Laureate, one of the most deservedly appreciated authors of his own day, could find no worthier recipient for the dedication of this favourite book than his esteemed friend Sharon Turner. This, remember, is the deliberate judgment of a contemporary; Southey could afford to be independent in his choice in conferring the honour which he, as a foremost writer, had it in his power to bestow." These extracts help us to see the esteem with which Sharon Turner was held in his day.

His Work

In his 'History of the Anglo-Saxons' he tells us three successive waves of people populated Europe. First, the Kimmerian, then the Scythian, Gothic, and "German", and lastly the Slavonian. The inhabitants of Britain are descended from the Kimmerians and Scythians (Book I). The second stock is peculiarly interesting to us, because from its branches the Anglo-Saxons, Lowland Scotch, Normans, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, among others, have unquestionably descended (Book 2). At some period after the Ki mmerians reached the shores of the North Sea a portion of them passed over and settled themselves in Britain. "It is agreed by the British antiquaries that the most ancient inhabitants of our island were called Cymry. The Welsh, who are their descendants, have always called themselves Cymry. . . The Cymry of Britain have sprung from the continental Kimmerians, who were once sovereigns of the Kimmerian Bosphorus (Crimea)."

After the Kinmerians came the Scythians and the Saxons who came to Britain in the fifth century A.D. were a Scythian tribe. Sharon Turner says the name "Saxon" was derived from "Sacae" (Sakai) and traces the Saxons back to the region of the Crimea. The Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great shows that "Sacae" was the Persian name for a people vaguely called "Gi-mi-ri" ("the tribes") by the Babylonians. The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser, now in the British Museum, calls the Israelites of the ten-tribed House of Israel Beth-Khumri, or "The House of Omri" (Omri was pronounced Khumri, the initial vowel being gutteral), after Omri, one of the most notorious of their kings (I Kings 16:16). It is well known that our Anglo-Saxon ancestors at one time inhabited the region now known as the Crimea. We see, therefore, that in the region where Bible history leaves the ten-tribed of Israel, secular history finds our own ancestors.

Conclusion

In quoting Sharon Turner we must remember that the Anglo Saxons, etc., are not of German origin. The fact that they passed through the region now known as Germany does not constitute them Germans. The following testimonies of the noted ethnologists are of erect importance and value. Professor W.J. Ripley: "This ethnological comparison proves that the Anglo-Saxon peoples must be of an entirely different stock from the present German race, and that they therefore do not belong to the Teuton stock." Dr. Latham "Throughout the whole length and breadth of Germany there is not a village, hamlet or family which can show definite signs of descent from the continental ancestors of the Angles of England. There is ample evidence of the whole Anglo-Saxon peoples leaving Germany." 'The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles state that when the Angles and the Saxons came across to Britain they came in a body, leaving few of their kindred behind.

Sharon Turner was a great historian seeking to establish our origin, and in so doing has rendered an invaluable service.