Turnbull Clan Association

New South Wales, Australia

In reference to Ebenezer Church Celebrates 200th Year, Bullseye, Volume 9, Issue 8, October, 2009

Of those eight free settlers who arrived in Australia on the Coromandel in 1802, six were Scottish.  Only John Howe and William Stubbs were considered to be English. John Howe was from Redbourne in Lancashire & William Stubbs ancestry is not known, though he may have been from Northumberland of Scottish descent, as was the case with many many Northumbrians in the 17/18th centuries.

Of the fifteen families involved in the construction of the old church 1808/09, it's a fact that they all became related, by marriage and birth, one way or another. In those early days there were very few young people in the colony, so choosing a partner depended on one’s means of transport. It was either a boat up and down the river or by horse, if you could afford to own one.

An estimated 600 Turnbulls from all over the world converged on the town for the historic event, which was organised as part of the Homecoming 2009 programme. And it came 32 years after the Clan Association was first formed by Mrs Turnbull and her late husband John.

• Read full article as published in Hawick News online.
• Read all the Turnbull articles from Hawick News on July 24, 2009 as a  PDF.
• View photographs of Monument by Bill Trimble

Arbroath, Scotland

Tartan Day originated in Nova Scotia, Canada, because of a proposal from the Federation of Scottish Clans. The Ontario Legislature passed a resolution in 1991 proclaiming April 6th as Tartan Day. The United States began similar action in 1998 which eventually resulted in a House Resolution proclaiming April 6 as National Tartan Day. April 6 is significant as this is the date in 1320 that the Declaration of Arbroath, the Scottish Declaration of Independence, was signed. It is interesting to note that the American Declaration of Independence was modeled in part after this document. Almost half the signers of the Declaration of Independence were of Scottish descent and the Governors in 9 of the original 13 states were Scottish-Americans.

The following is summarized and extracted from a handwritten memorandum in a hand-drawn genealogical tree of the Mexican branch of the Turnbull family: “From
1720 to 1920:” Andrew Turnbull, M.D. was founder of the American branch of the family. He studied medicine in Paris where he met the lady who became his wife, a Greek
by birth. She had been educated in Paris and was famous by her great beauty besides being most accomplished and an excellent wife and mother. She was most noticed at court by Queen Charlotte, as she spoke German which few ladies then did…Dr. Turnbull is mentioned by the Abbé Reynal in his “History of the East and West Indies” with encomium as “Le sage Turnbull”.