The TURNBULL Name

Turnbull

One of the valleys that run north out of the Cheviots into Teviotdale carries Rule water to its parent river. It is one of these pockets in which the most ancient stock of any country might survive, taking in the new blood of successive immigrants or conquerors, yet retaining an original identity. Bedrule lies in the recesses of hills that had once divided the Welsh-speaking kingdom of Gododdin from English Northumbria, and later formed the "debateable land" between Scotland and England. It is the original cradle of a tribe called the TURNBULLS. The earliest record of them appears in the time of the Anglo-Norman Kings of Scots. A Richard de Rullos is named there in 1130: a Gilbertus de Bebulle in 1248. The district itself is called Terra de Rul in 1266. But it seems unlikely that its inhabitants descend from one of the Anglo-Norman families whom the Scottish Kings brought from England or France. The name TURNBULL, and its legendary origin, suggest quite different affinities. Hector Boece related this legend as historical fact in 1526, in his account of the manner in which a man named Roull saved the life of King Robert Bruce in the forest of Callander, from a wild boar or bull. " after the beast felt himself sore wounded, he rushed upon the King who, having no weapon in his hand, had surely perished if help had not come. Howbeit, one came running unto him who overthrew the bull by plain force, and held him down until the hunters came who killed him outright. For this valiant act the King endowed the aforesaid party with great possessions, and his lineage to this day is called of the TURNBULL. "Had this been historical fact, it would provide supporting evidence that Robert I had planted a TURNBULL in Bedrule in the same way as he planted a Burnett at Banchory, for services rendered. But in addition to the negative evidence, there is the positive presence of a William "dicto TURNBULL" in records earlier than Bruce's reign . In any case, the heroic progenitor of the tribe who slays a dangerous wild beast belongs to the stock-in-trade of Celtic legend. The MacLeods have a version of it and the oldest one of all in Scotland was brought among the Ossianic tales from Ireland. In this one, Diarmaid, legendary progenitor of Clan Campbell, kills the wild boar in Gaelic ballad and folk tale. The principal difference between the MacLeod and Campbell versions on the one hand and the TURNBULL one on the other is that of language. The Welsh of the Gododdin epic - Scotland's earliest poem - had given way to English over a Thousand years before the poet of the TURNBULL country, John Leyden, wrote in 1801:

His arms robust the hardy hunter flung Around his bending horns, and upward wrung, With writhing force his neck retorted round, And rolled the panting monster to the ground, Crushed, with enormous strength, his bony skull; And courtiers hailed the man who turned the bull.

Leyden has identified the beast as a bison a few lines earlier. But it is a bull's head that is incorporated into the coat-of arms of TURNBULL, as of Mac Leod, while the Campbell heraldry contains a boar's head. But heraldry was a form of military identification introduced into Scotland from about the 12^th century, with all the other kit of the Norman feudal system. It made use of the emblems of an older society, as well as introducing those of the newcomers. The three bull's heads of TURNBULL ( variously adorned in later matriculations ) appear to belong to a pre-heraldic, Celtic past like the legend that accounts for them. But they were displayed in many a border battle, and notably at the defeat of Halidon Hill in 1333, when a TURNBULL knight challenged any one of the enemy to single combat. By the time of John Leyden the poet (1775-1811), the TURNBULL country stood on the threshold of the industrial revolution. He was born in the village of Denholm near the junction of Rule water and the Teviot, and joined Sir Walter Scott in collecting their MINSTRELSY OF THE SCOTTISH BORDER, that monument to a vanishing way of life and its traditions. The greater part of Denholm was owned at this time by John TURNBULL (1785-1816), whose wife was Jane Leyden; and the lives of their descendants illustrate the great dispersal that was about to take place in the rural Scotland of the son Joshua(1785-1828) became a lawyer in Glasgow , where he died leaving an only son Thomas, aged four. Thomas TURNBULL (1824-1908) qualified as an architect, married a Scottish wife, and then emigrated. He settled first in San Francisco in the turbulent days that Stevenson depicted in THE WRECKERS. There he built a number of churches and other public buildings before moving on to New Zealand in the latter days of the Maori wars. His earthquake resistant buildings in Wellington all withstood the 1942 earthquakes there, and his own descendants have multiplied until the name is probably commoner in the antipodes today than in Bedrule. When Thomas TURNBULL died, a monument of Aberdeen granite was brought all the way from Scotland to commemorate him, while another of his name founded New Zealand's Alexander TURNBULL Library in Wellington.

TURNBULL CLAN ASSOCIATION The early recorded history of the TURNBULL family goes back to the early 1300's when WILLIAM RULE saved the life of King Robert the Bruce by turning a ferocious bull which had threatened to gore the king. Thereafter RULE was called TURN-E-BULL and awarded rich lands by the king. The lands comprised the western parts of the estates of PHILIPHAUGH, SELKIRSHIRE, with payment of one broad arrow each Assumption Day of the Virgin ( August 15).

A counter claim to the legend that the name comes from the OLD ENGLISH "TRUMBALD" meaning strongly bold, is also feasible. There are many references to the TURNBULLS and RULES during the 1300's. John Leyden in his "Scenes of Infancy" describes the heroic deed. While the story is very much disputed by historians it is also very much recorded. The fact remains that Robert the Bruce did deed over certain lands for services rendered by RULE. William became something of a national hero and assumed a bull's head as his heraldic symbol with the motto, "I Saved The King". He met a gruesome end at the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333. Bedrule Castle, built by the Conyns, was added to the possessions of Sir James Douglas, who installed a TURNBULL as its occupant. Bedrule Castle was destroyed by the English in 1545; the TURNBULLS continued in heritable possession until the end of the 18^th century.

Descendants of the TURNBULLS of Bedrule include Bishop William TURNBULL, founder of Glasgow University in 1447, "Brother Johnathan" TRUMBULL, Governor of Connecticut and Dr. Andrew TURNBULL, founder of the ill fated colony of New Smyrna, Florida. Stephen TOURNEBULLE was procurator of the Scottish "nation" at the University of Orleans in 1507.

Throughout the ages, TURNBULLS have distinguished themselves as churchmen, scholars, scientists and administrators. TURNBULLS have been Provosts of Dunfermline and Edinburgh in Scotland. More recently a Commissioner of London Police; Myra TURNBULL, widow of our clan founder was the first Lady Provost of Hawick. The clan was dormant for hundreds of years until revived in 1977 by the late John TURNBULL of Hawick, Scotland.

The TURNBULL dress tartan was created by John TURNBULL using the main features of the Bruce and Douglas Tartans, both of these clans having had an integral part in the TURNBULL history.

The U.S. branch was founded and chartered in August, 1979 by Dorothy Turnbull Berk.

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