George Turner

Who was George Turner?

George Turner was an English-born soldier, land speculator, and jurist from South Carolina.

Little is known about Turner's personal life. In the American Revolutionary War, he served in the 1st South Carolina Regiment of the Continental Army, rising to the rank of captain. He was taken prisoner by the British at the siege of Charleston on 12 May 1780. He was later exchanged, and brevetted a major at the end of the war.

Turner moved to Philadelphia after the war. A member of the Society of the Cincinnati, he was secretary of their second general meeting, held in Philadelphia in May 1787. Turner was the likely author of a set of "strictures on the proposed Constitution" which were published anonymously in the Freeman's Journal on September 26, 1787. The article was the first criticism of the proposed Constitution to be distributed publicly in the United States.

Turner became a member of the American Philosophical Society in January 1790. He wrote several works on various subjects.

As a prominent land speculator, Turner had a vested interest in seeing a stable government established in the newly acquired Northwest Territory.