Very little is known of John Turner. Although there has been much speculation, I will only include in this bio what is supported by facts in order to preserve the integrity of genealogical research. John Turner is only mentioned in one Leiden record, on September 27, 1610, when he guaranteed citizenship to Peter Boey and William Lisle. No evidence has been found to support his English origins, but he may have been from Great Yarmouth where there are several Turner Families. He was referred to as a merchant. He sometimes acted as a courier for the Leiden congregation, delivering letters from Leiden to London.

According to William Bradford, John Turner came on the Mayflower with his two sons, but their names and his wife's name are unknown. John Turner signed the Mayflower Compact, but his sons did not, presumably because they were under the age of 21. John Turner and his sons all died the first winter in Plymouth colony. Long after Turner's death in 1651, William Bradford wrote that John Turner had "a daughter still living in Salem, wll married and approved of." Robert S. Wakefield noted that a "Lysbet Turner", orphan from England, is found in the Leiden poll tax of 1622. In October 1635, an Elizabeth Turner witnessed a property deed between William Lord and John Woolcott of Salem, Massachusetts, and a few months later Elizabeth Turner joined the Salem church. Who Elizabeth Turner married in Salem remains unknown. If John Turner does have any living descendants they would have to be through Elizabeth Turner, but given that there is no documentation of her marriage or children, anyone claiming to be a descendant of Pilgrim John Turner would be using quite the stretch of imagination.