Anne Turner

Mrs. Anne Turner (5 January 1576 – 15 November 1615), aka Mistress Anne Turner, was the widow of a respectable London doctor who was hanged at Tyburn for her role in the famous 1613 poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury referenced in the plays A New Trick to Cheat the Devil, The Widow, The World Tossed at Tennis and The City Nightcap. Background She was born Anne Norton on 5 January 1576, one of six children to Thomas and Margaret Norton of Hinxton, Cambridgeshire. Later, as her reputation came in question, rumours spread that she was an illegitimate child of the disreputable London apothecary and astrologer named Simon Forman. Also considered to be a "beautiful" woman, she married a physician, Dr. George Turner, who died in 1610, and became the mistress of Sir Arthur Mainwaring. At some point she had become a "waiting woman" or "companion" of Frances Howard. It seems that at this time that Howard had fallen in love with the king's favourite, Robert Carr and they soon began an exchange of romantic correspondence. Howard was married at the time to the Earl of Essex, and at his instance was obliged to travel back with him after his return from France to his house at Chartley in Staffordshire. There she persisted in a refusal to sleep with her husband, perhaps hoping to have the marriage annulled on the grounds of non-consummation. Whilst Carr may have been satisfied with this state of affairs, Frances wished to marry him. However, Carr's mentor, Sir Thomas Overbury disapproved of the match, which was an impediment to Frances Howard's hopes. Her uncle, Sir Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton and her ally Mrs Turner seem to have conspired to get Overbury discredited.