Turnbull Clan Association

Lt. Col. Jack I. Turnbull

Lt. Col. Jack I. Turnbull Trophy

National Lacrosse Hall of Fame induction of Jack I. Turnbull.

Date: 1965

Dimensions: 20” tall

Location: US Lacrosse Hall of Fame, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Notes: Excerpt from www.usalacrosse.org: Jack Turnbull has been called the "Babe Ruth" of lacrosse, and few, if any, could equal his playing ability. On April 19, 1937, in the press, Kid Norris stated, "Jack Turnbull is the finest player I've ever seen or played with." Billy Shriver, radio commentator, said in 1947, "Jack Turnbull is what I call the complete athlete. By that I mean when he played a game, he gave it everything he had - spiritually, mentally, physically. Although he was an individual standout, he was always the team player, always playing for the best interests of the sport." He was a four-time captain of lacrosse teams - Poly, 1926; Hopkins, 1932; U.S. Olympic Team, 1932 and Mt. Washington Club, 1934. He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Engineering at Hopkins in three years and was three times "All American."

John Turnbull in the Hawick Shop

John Turnbull in the Hawick Shop

John Turnbull founder of the Turnbull Clan Society in the Turnbull Grocery and Wine Store at 51 High Street, Hawick, Scotland.

Date: c. 1950s

Location: Hawick, Scotland

 

 

 

John Turnbull in the Hawick ShopJohn Turnbull in Shop in Bacon Ad

John Turnbull founder of the Turnbull Clan Society in the Turnbull Grocery and Wine Store at 51 High Street, Hawick, Scotland posing for an advertisement for bacon.

Date: c. 1950s

Location: Hawick, Scotland

John Fisher Turnbull

John Fisher Turnbull

Founder of the Turnbull Clan Society and proprietor of Turnbull’s Grocery and Wine Store, 51 High Street, Hawick, Scotland.

Date: 1932 - 1982

Location: Hawick, Scotland

Notes: John F. Turnbull had a vision of connecting Turnbulls from all around the globe and celebrating their common heritage together.  He founded Turnbull Clan Association in 1977.  In 1978, he designed and established the Turnbull Dress Tartan and the Turnbull Hunting Tartan.

Myra and John F. Turnbull

John and Myra TurnbullJohn Fisher Turnbull pictured with his wife, Myra.

Date: c. 1970s

Location: Hawick, Scotland

Note: John and Myra Turnbull founded the Turnbull Clan Association (TCA) in 1977. John was a grocer and whisky blender for the family business, Turnbull Grocery and Wine Shop located at 51 High Street, Hawick, Scotland. After John’s death in 1982, his wife Myra kept TCA going. She became the first woman provost of Hawick and was awarded the title of MBE (Member of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II. She is the first recipient of the John F. Turnbull Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

Turnbull, John, Civil war Physician

Jihn Turnbull lived and practiced medicine in Bellbrook after he had enlisted as a private in the Civil War. He served four months, then joined another regiment as acting assistant surgeon and after a year became assistant surgeon in a third regiment. He was know to be an excellent physician who would treat patients with with medicine or advice, often to the point of annoying the patient with his frankness. A member of his church board, he was called on the carpet for swearing so freely. When asked why he did that, he replied that it made him “feel damned good.”

In the memorial annals of Greene county there are few names held in better remembrance than that of the late Dr. John Turnbull, who ·died at his home in Bellbrook in the summer of 1907 and whose widow is still living there, her place of residence ever since her marriage ·at the close of the Civil War. Doctor Turnbull served as a surgeon in the Union army during the Civil War and a narrative of his experiences in that connection would make a most interesting book. He was graduated from Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia in the spring of 1861 and had hardly returned to .his home in this county when the President's call for volunteers to put down the armed rebellion against the government came in April of that year. He at once enlisted for service and went to the front as a member of Company A, Seventeenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, enlisted for three months. He was promoted to the position of hospital steward and after four months of service was mustered out in West Virginia. He then served gratuitously for nearly a year as a volunteer assistant surgeon with the Sixty-fifth Ohio and with the "minute men" of 1862, and then was appointed assistant surgeon of the One Hundred and Fifth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, joining that command at Tullahoma, Tennessee, July 4, 1863. The surgeon of this regiment, Dr. Charles N. Fowler, being constantly on detached service as medical director, Doctor Turnbull was practically surgeon of the One Hundred and Fifth Ohio until the close of the war.

Doctor Turnbull rendered his professional offices with a skill and a kindliness of manner that endeared him to all members of the command. During the furious charges of the battle of Chickamauga, Surgeon Turnbull was on duty with his regi­ment and two men were shot while he was dressing their wounds. After the battle was over he was left to look after the wounded and was cap­tured by the enemy, but two weeks later was released and sent through to the Union lines at Chattanooga. ·while thus a prisoner the Doctor served friend and foe alike, but his kindly offices. in behalf of such of the enemy as stood in need of surgical attention did not prevent a squad of Confederate cavalry from robbing him of his coat, hat, boots, money, case of instru­ments - in fact, everything he had save his shirt and trousers, the rebels giving him an old pair of shoes in exchange for the good pair they took from him. So completely stripped was he that in afterward describing the act the Doctor quaintly observed that the "rebs" had taken from him "about everything except his hope of salvation, which was so small they did not find it." In consequence of the exposure thus entailed Doctor Turnbull was confined for several weeks in a hospital at Chattanooga.

Dr. John Turnbull was a native son of Greene county, a member of one of the oldest families in the county, both his father and his mother having been representatives of pioneer families in -this section. He was born on a farm in Cedarville township, March 10, 1840, son of John a11d Catherine Margaret (Kyle) Turnbull, the latter of whom also was born here, daughter of Samuel and Ruth (Mitchell) Kyle, the former of whom was for many years a member of the bench of associate judges for Greene county. John Turnbull was born in the neighborhood of the "Hermitage," Andrew Jackson's retreat in the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee, February 17, 1801,. and was stillin his "teens" when his parents, William Turnbull and wife, came up here with their family in 1817 and settled on a tract of land on what is now known as the Columbus pike, in Cedarville township, about three miles from the village of Cedarville. Of the children born to the pioneer Will­iam Turnbul1 and wife six sons, Alexander, Thomas, Gilbert, John, James and David, and two daughters, Betsey, who married Joseph Sterritt, and Isabella, who married John Chalmers, grew to maturity and reared families of their own, hence the Turnbull connection hereabout became a numerous one, as well as in the neighborhood of Monmouth, Illinois, to which latter place William Turnbull and his. sons, Alexander, Gilbert and David, moved in 1833, establishing their homes there.

John Turnbull grew to manhood on the pioneer farm in Cedarville township and on February 21, 1824, was united in marriage to Catherine Margaret Kyle, one of the daughters cf Judge Kyle. After his marriage he began farming on his own account on a farm in Cedarville township, erecting there a lo5 cabin for the reception o.f his bride. In 1842 he supplanted the log house by a good sized two­ story frame house, which on the night of the day on which it was finished was nearly destroyed by fire communicated from a blaze which had broken out in the adjoining and abandoned log cabin. The damaged house was then restored as a one-story house and in it the family lived until later a brick addition was erected. John Turnbull lived to be nearly eighty years of age, his death occurring on August 12, 1880; and he was buried in the Cedarville cemetery: He was twice married, his first wife having died in 1852, after which he married Margaret J. Allen, daughter of Hugh and Catherine Allen, and was the father of nineteen children, all of whom grew to maturity save three. The home place came into the possession of Samuel K. Turnbull, who rebuilt the house, tearing away the brick addition and erect­ing a two-story frame house. The Turnbulls, originally Seceders, became affiliated with the United Presbyterian church following the "union" of 1858.

The younger John Turnbull was reared on the home farm in Cedarville township, received his elementary schooling in the neighborhood schools. and early turned his attention to the study of medicine, presently entering Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, from which institution he wa; graduated in the spring of 1861, at twenty-one years of age. Almost imme­diately thereafter he enlisted his services in behalf of the Inion arms, as noted in the opening paragraph of this memorial sketch, and served until the close of the war. Upon the completion of his military service Doctor Turnbull returned to Greene county and opened an office for the practice of his profession in the village of Bellbrook, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring there on July 19, 1907. Doctor Turnbull served for some time as president of the local board of education, as a member of the town council and at one time was the nominee of the Democratic party in this district for a seat in the Ohio General Assembly.

On September 9, 1865, Dr. John Turnbull was united in marriage to Josephine Kyle, daughter of Dr. John and Caroline (Bullard) Kyle, of Xenia, and to this union were born two children, Jesse, who died at the age of sixteen years, and Pearl A., who married Harry Armstrong, attorney­ at law, Xenia, and has one child, a daughter, Josephine. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Turnbull has continued to make her home at Bellbrook.

(Most of this information is extracted from Broadstone, Vol. #2, History of Green County Ohio 1918).

Turnbull, Loretta, Queen of the Seas

By Kihm Winship

In the summer of 1931, Loretta Turnbull, a 17-year-old girl from the United States, was competing for the International Championship of outboard motor racing on Lake Guarda in Italy. The Italian, Spanish and English boats were all large, metal and piloted by men.

In contrast, Turnbull’s boat was “a little job with a little bit of airplane linen on the deck.” It was called “The Sunkist Kid,” a nod to Turnbull’s childhood among the orange groves of Monrovia, California. To most observers, she was a minnow among sharks, but they would soon be witnesses to her world-class passion for speed.

loretta in boat

In fact, at one point in the 17-mile race, Loretta Turnbull led her competitors by more than a mile. Until a cylinder began to misfire and her boat slowed. Bad luck. The young girl stopped the boat and began to replace “the bum plug.” While she worked, four of her competitors roared by. The repair made, Turnbull gave a pull of the rope, started the engine and was back on her way. She caught the first two boats almost at once, the third not long after, and she passed the fourth just three feet from the finish line.

Suddenly, after a display of speed and coolness, a teenager from California was the world’s best outboard motorboat racer. Clad in greasy coveralls, she received her prize from Crown Prince Humberto and Princess Maria, who leaned forward with the trophy so Turnbull would not step on their carpet.

At her next stop, across the Atlantic in a small village in the Finger Lakes, the buzz began. Loretta Turnbull, the international champion, was on her way home to California and stopping in Skaneateles. Racing in the Sunkist Kid, Turnbull would carry the colors of Citrus College in the Intercollegiate outboard motor regatta on June 20, 1931.

Granted, some residents of the Village were not excited. They found the regatta, now in its second year, to be noisy and the crowds an annoyance. Others were delighted with the publicity and the boost to tourism. But in a New York Herald Tribune article, a mechanic sounded a note that will have a familiar ring to today’s Villagers. “This is the first regatta where I could lay down a monkey wrench and come back in 10 minutes to find it still there!”

Much heralded by the Skaneateles Press, the day came. In the first race, against a field of college boys, Turnbull flew out to the lead. But as she readied her boat to round the first buoy, a patrol boat cut across the course and raised a wake. Years later, she told her daughter, Tiare Richert-Finney, that she had only an instant to decide whether to slow down and maybe lose the race, or go for it. “Like there was any question,” her daughter said, laughing.

Loretta Turnbull went for it. As she hit the wake, the Sunkist Kid leapt off the water and did a barrel roll. Or as she put it in 1935, in a radio interview with Al Jolson, “I was way out ahead of ’em and all of a sudden I did a wing-ding.”

At the top of the roll, the Sunkist Kid threw its pilot 15 feet. Turnbull hit the water hard, dislocating her hip and cracking her femur. Dragged down by her coveralls and the tools in her pockets, stunned by the flip and the impact, it was all she could do to keep her nose above the surface of the water. The rest of the field bore down on her. “Fear sort of took over,” she said. Trying to lift an arm to signal, she barely stayed afloat as the other boats roared by, some within two feet of her face.

Luck and her life preserver saved her. Rescuers came to her aid and she was rushed to the Auburn City Hospital in the local ambulance, which was actually a hearse that doubled as an emergency vehicle. At the hospital, a local druggist, A.J. Hoffman, brought her a short wave radio and she was able to listen to the rest of the races. At her bedside, she was awarded a medal for “having come the greatest distance to participate.”

loretta hearse

Loretta with hearse ambulance

On July 7th, after three weeks in the hospital, she began her journey home, chauffeured in the same ambulance/hearse that had brought her from Skaneateles to Auburn. She vowed to return to following year.

She returned to her parents’ home in California. Her father wanted her to quit racing, but her mother supported her desire to continue. Although she would walk with a limp for the rest of her life, Loretta Turnbull did not slow down.

Her spirit had been evident since childhood. Loretta, and her brothers Rupert, Raymond and Byron, grew up in a house called Polk Place in Monrovia, California. Her father, Judge Rupert Turnbull, bought the estate in 1922 and it was the family home for the next 25 years. It was not a quiet home. Loretta and her brothers would go to a movie theater, watch a western, return home, load pistols with live ammo, saddle up and ride through the nearby orchards firing into the air. “They were baaad kids,” her daughter noted.

(The house still stands. Its present owner renamed it Chateau Bradbury Estate and makes it available for weddings, television commercials and location shooting. You can see it in the film Grosse Point Blank, where it “plays” the home of Minnie Driver’s character.)

Loretta Turnbull’s racing career began by accident when she was 13 years old. To keep the teenage girl occupied while the family summered in La Jolla, Judge Turnbull ordered a small boat from a catalog. He was surprised when a racing model arrived. What did they do?

“We put an outboard on it and we went racing,” Loretta said. She ran out of gas in her first race, three times, and finished last. But she stuck with it. Her father hired a rum runner to follow her with gas cans. She got better. She got faster. And in 1931, she became the International Champion.

After her accident in Skaneateles, she took time to mend. In 1932, she came back. She raced again in Italy, with her brothers. As a “family team,” they brought home two championships, two competitive records and 13 trophies. In California, she took first place in her class at races held during the 1932 Olympics.

Between 1932 and 1935, she raced in events like the Pacific Grand Prix Sweepstakes, the Champions’ Day regatta, and the Southern California Championship. She won the Hearst Gold Trophy (besting 25 men in the running) and the President’s Gold Cup — more than 80 racing trophies in all. She set the World’s speed record for C-Class outboards.

Loretta article

Even without television and People magazine, Loretta Turnbull was famous. She appeared on the back of a Wheaties box, and in ads for Jantzen swimwear and sweaters. She had her own trading card, from Canada’s O-Pee-Chee potato chips. She rode a speedboat of flowers in the Rose Bowl Parade, and graced the cover of the Standard Oil Bulletin.

loretta Standard Oil

In 1935, Turnbull teamed with athlete Bunny Seawright in a race across the Catalina Channel; Turnbull drove a speedboat and towed Seawright behind on an aquaplane, a craft variously described as a large washboard or a small toboggan. The ride lasted almost two hours, and the team finished seventh. “I was dead scared of Loretta Turnbull,” Seawright said. “I mean here was a woman who was used to winning and I wasn’t really sure what I was doing.”

That same year, Judge Turnbull bought a 110′ diesel yacht called the Mary Irene and took his family 5,000 miles from Long Beach Harbor to Hawaii. Still competitive, Loretta entered three races at Ala Moana (Ala Wai). She won all three. But her boat-racing days were nearing an end. She married Tom Richert, who had worked as a mechanic on her boats. He became a doctor, established his practice in Hawaii and they began to raise a family.

Loretta “Tetta” Richert was soon the mother of three children, and as many mothers do, she left speed boats behind and began a career as a race car driver. In a 1955 Road and Track article entitled, “Hawaii Races,” she was pictured on a curve with the caption, “Beneath the green Koolau Mountains, Mrs. T.H. Richert, formerly Loretta Turnbull, boating ace of the ’30s, spins her TR-2 in a cloud of dust.” She was the only woman member of the Sports Car Club of Hawaii. “I like to go fast,” she told an interviewer. “I think I will go fast until I die.”

Through it all, she kept her love of the water. She dove for sea shells in Bora Bora, Palau, Tonga, Tahiti, along the Great Barrier Reef and in the Red Sea. A friend recalled diving with her when there were sharks around the boat. She said, “The odds of a shark biting a 67-year-old are remote; I’m going in.”

Her injury in Skaneateles followed her all her days, and she had hip surgery a number of times over the years. “But when the technology caught up with her, she was off again,” her daughter said. In her early 80s, she went jet-skiing with her sons.

On November 19, 2000, Loretta Turnbull Richert died at the age of 88 in Honolulu. Her family and friends took to the ocean in boats as a final salute, scattering flowers and leis on the water.

“My mother knew Amelia Earhart,” her daughter said. “Amelia was the queen of the skies, and my mother was the queen of the seas.”

In closing, I must mention her daughter, Tiare Richert-Finney, outrigger canoe racer and member of Team O’ahu. In 2002, with five like-minded teammates, she competed in Tahiti and won a gold medal in the International Va’a Federation World Sprints, 1000 meters for women 45 and up. The spirit lives.

* * *

Reading the weekly Skaneateles Press on microfilm is like watching a stop-action film. People blink into view and then vanish. So it was with Loretta Turnbull in the summer of 1931. For two weeks, the Press heralded her arrival. The next, they told of her spill and the trip to the hospital in Auburn. The following week, nothing. But Loretta Turnbull had captured my imagination and I couldn’t leave her.

My thanks to the Skaneateles Historical Society and to Tiare Richert-Finney, Loretta Turnbull’s daughter, for her kindness in speaking and writing to answer my questions and share memories of her extraordinary mother. My thanks to Dana Hume Turnbull-Hoyer for additional information on the Turnbull family. The first photo, from Loretta’s daughter, Tiare Richert-Finney, is of Loretta Turnbull in Hawaii in 1935.

This piece was reprinted in the newsletter of the Skaneateles Historical Society, and in the October 2003 issue of The Antique Outboarder.

* * *

Other sources: “Loretta Turnbull… expected to arrive,” Skaneateles Press, June 11, 1931; “Miss Turnbull is the only woman entrant,” Skaneateles Press, June 18, 1931; “Injured Girl Racer Doing Well at Auburn Hospital,” Skaneateles Press, June 25, 1931; “Zip Zip Went the Outboards in the 1930s” by Don Stinson, Skaneateles Press, May 8, 1985; Interview with Al Jolson on the Shell Chateau radio show, July 20, 1935; “Hawaii Races,” Road and Track, October 1955; “The Barrier Reef Story” by Tetta Richert, Hawaiian Shell News, July 1983; “Diving for Ships and Shells in the Red Sea” by Tetta Richert, Hawaiian Shell News, March 1986; “Tetta Richert Story” by Carolyn Burke, Hydrofest 1992 (program), October 1992, pp.65-67; “Boat, Car Racer Richert Dies at 88” by Mary Adamski, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, December 1, 2000; “Going for Gold in Golden Years” by Suzanne Roig, Honolulu Advertiser, March 1, 2002; “Paddlers Coming Home with Two Medals” by Suzanne Roig, Honolulu Advertiser, March 16, 2002

This article by Kihm Winship

Turnbull, Barb

Toronto Star reporter Barb Turnbull was posthumously appointed to the Order of Canada during a ceremony at Rideau Hall. Turnbull, a long-time journalist and advocate for spinal cord research and accessibility for the disabled, was left quadriplegic at the age of 18 after being shot in the neck during a convenience store robbery in 1983. Turnbull died in May from complications due to pneumonia at age 50. She received her appointment of distinction just two days before her death. The Order of Canada, created in 1967, recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.

James of Turnbull

In the town of Carmagnola, Piedmont, there is an engraved tombstone of James of Turnbull. He was an armiger, a man-at-arms, that followed King Charles VIII in the expedition to Naples. He died in Carmagnola in 1496, may be for the injuries received during  the battle of Fornovo (6 July 1495).

Lapide Giacomo di Turnbule s

scheda Giacomodi Turnbule s

The text of the scheda (fiche or information document): in red my clarifications.1

13 Existent [i.e. monument]

CARMAGNOLA [the town in which is the monument]

Saint Augustine Square, ancient cloister of Saint Augustine (today belonging to Liceo classico Baldesano [it is a classical high school or lycee]), tombstone of Giacomo di Turnbule [James of Turnbull]

Original location: Saint Augustine's Church

1496

Turnbule, Giacomo di

Gothic shield, three heads of bull, with an orle

The insignia decorate the gisant [ i.e. recumbenteffigy] of the Scotsman in the pay of French Giacomo di Turnbule, from the Glasgow diocese, died in Carmagnola returning from the Neapolitan emprise of Charles VIII.   A Tounebulle/Turnbul family, of scottish ancestry and moved to Normandy e to Champagne, bore a coat of arms argent, three bulls' heads sable [i.e. black], with gules [red] horns and tongues (J.B. RIETSTAP 1868, II, p. 928; V. e V.H. ROLLAND 1969, P. 684), and is most likely to relate to James' family. The orle is a brisure [mark of cadency], in Scotland an usual way of distinguishing the cadets.

The dead is portrayed in armour,   flancked by his weapons and accompanied by two shields.

The inscription carved into the edge of the tombstone recites: HIC IACET STRENUUS ARMIG(ier)/ EX P(ri)MA FRA(n)COR(um) REG(is) ACIE IACOBUS DE TORNABULA/DE REGNO SCOTIE DIOC(esis) GLASGUENSIS P(er)ROH(ie) S(ancte) RETIGARNE. Q(u)I OBIIT CARMAGNO(lie)//A(nno) D(omini) 1496 DIE 2 SEPT(embris). The attribution of the sculpture to Meo da Caprina, maked by R. Menochio and M. Marchetti, isn't pertinent. The tombstone was removed from the church and placed in the hallway of the lycee, that functioned as a epigraphic museum, in 1890.

R. Menochio 1890, pp. 89 and 252; M. Marchetti 1936, p. 41.

  1. 1.The documents was derived from: L.C. Gentile, Araldica saluzzese. Il Medioevo, Cuneo, 2004 picture: n. 18, p. 48, scheda: p. 171

 

I may add that In Middle ages many Scots came to the aid the Kings of France and Scottish soldiers also served in the Garde Écossaise, the loyal bodyguard of the French monarchy. Many Scottish mercenaries chose to settle in France. Some were granted lands and titles in France. In the 15th and 16th centuries, they became naturalised French subjects (see Bonner, Elizabeth (2002)."Scotland's `Auld Alliance' with France, 1295-1560".History84(273) and FRENCH NATURALIZATION OF THE SCOTS IN THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES by ELIZABETH BONNER http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=E9E909BF9B4D88FCFCDDFCD18467B220.journals?fromPage=online&aid=5217).

Anyway, in James Turnball's case I think that the soldier was in the Scottish troops under the command ofRobertson of Strowan, who fought forCharles VIII in Italy (some Italian families claim descent from them). Several of the highest families in Scotland devoted themselves to the French service, and rose high in favour and influence: John Stewart of Darnly was Constable of the Scots in France, and the French King in 1424 made him Lord of Aubigny, afterwards giving him the county of Dreux, and making him a Marshal of France. His descendants, John, Robert, Bernard or Berald, and others, served their adopted country well and faithfully, under Charles VIII., Louis XII., and following sovereigns, in the wars of Italy, where they particularly distinguished themselves at the battle of Fornovo, as well as in the Kingdom of Naples; and in 1495 the then lord was made Governor of Calabria by Charles VIII.

In the battle of Fornovo this èlite Royal guard was very important and the Scottish infantry archers gave a relevant contribute. Nevertheless, Giacomo di Turnbule's effigy shows a typical warrior in full armour such as those worn by the best-equipped men-at-arms heavy cavalry in the second half of the 15th century. May be he was a captain of the archers, but his armour and weapons are distinctive of a knight: spurs, sword, pole-axe (a sort of warhammer or martello d'arme in Italian), dagger, lance.

It is possible that James of Turnbull was injured during the battle of Fornovo, on 6 July 1495; Charles VIII's army, after the fight, rested for the rest of the day, then marched north during the night, reaching the relative safety of Asti on 15 July and after went to Turin and from here to France on 22 october. But it is also possible that James was wounded in the fighting after the battle or aquiring a serious disease (the Duke of Orleans was besieged in Novara, where the French suffered famine and misery). In fact, he died on 2 september 1496, more than an year after the battle of Fornovo, and it is improbable that his agony lasted 14 months. On the other hand, if it was healthy when Charles VIII returned in France, he would get back with the army. Therefore, the reasons of his death remain unresolved! We can only say that he was buried in Carmagnola because the little town belonged to Ludovico II, Marquess of Saluzzo and trusty vassal of the King of France.

Trumbull, Governor Jonathan Sr.

trumble jonathan

Reprinted from The Scarlet Standard, Historical Series, Number Seven, January 1999, General Israel Putnam Branch #4 The Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Inc.

LEBANON: CENTER OF CONNECTICUT’S REBELLION

The American Revolution was an extraordinary time in history and the sequence of events that unfolded at Lebanon was recognized by Gen. Washington and Gov. Trumbull as Providential and an absolutely essential key to American Independence. Lebanon was settled about 1700, so named by the Rev. James Fitch from a swamp of cedars found there. The Biblical implication to “Cedars of Lebanon” (Psalm 104) is somewhat prophetic as out of Lebanon would come the “Provision State”. Lebanon became home to the Trumbull Family when Capt. Joseph Trumbull moved there from Simsbury in 1704.  He was the Grandson of John Trumbull, who came from England and settled at Rowley, Massachusetts in 1640. Also somewhat prophetically, the Trumbulls claimed a family tradition and Coat of Arms, derived from an incident in Scotland in the year 1315. King Robert the Bruce was hunting in the forest and became closely pursued by an enraged bull. A young Scot intercepted the bull by seizing its horns, turning him aside and allowing the King to escape. For his courage, the grateful King knighted him with the name Turn-Bull and granted him an estate and coat of arms bearing a device of Three Bulls’ Heads with the motto “Fortuna Favet Audaci” (Fortune favors the bold). During the Revolutionary War, the Trumbulls of Lebanon would again be successful in turning the bull, The English “John Bull”.

Before moving to Lebanon, Joseph Trumbull married Hannah Higley at Simsbury (her brother Samuel made the famous “value me as you please” Higley Coppers, The first experiment with coinage in colonial Connecticut). Joseph and Hannah had eight children, all born at Lebanon. Joseph became a successful merchant farmer at Lebanon, raising cattle and buying more from surrounding towns, then driving them to Boston on the hoof where he would receive English manufactured goods in exchange. These he would sell or trade at his store in Lebanon. Later, the sale of salted beef and pork packed in barrels, would be their primary product. In 1718 Joseph Trumbull became Lieutenant of the Troop for New London County and then Captain of the Troop for Windham County in 1728. His eldest Son Joseph, Jr., born in 1705, became his business partner and in 1727 married Sarah Bulkeley of Colchester. They had two daughters, Sarah, born 1728, Married Elijah Johnson of Colchester and Katherine, born 1731, married Benjamin Burnham of Hebron. In 1730 Joseph, Jr., became Quartermaster of the Troop for Windham County. The Trumbulls were active in the West Indies trade and owned several vessels. Joseph, Jr. was the principal owner of the recently built Brigantine “Lebanon” and on December 29, 1731 he sailed from New London destined for Barbados with a cargo of trade goods. The vessel was lost at sea and Joseph, Jr. was never heard from again. The loss of his eldest son and business partner was a devastating blow to Joseph, but the stage was being set for American Independence, as Joseph would now rely on his second son Jonathan to manage the business.
                    
Jonathan Trumbull was born in 1710 and was early prepared for the ministry by his pastor, the Rev. Samuel Welles. Jonathan entered Harvard College at the age of Thirteen with deep religious conviction and was a distinguished scholar, graduating in 1727, having mastered Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Returning to Lebanon, he continued his study for three years with the moderate “New Light” minister of First Church, the Rev. Solomon Williams (father of CT Signer, William Williams), who with the theological giant, Jonathan Edwards, were Grandsons of the renowned Rev. Solomon Stoddard (Harvard 1662), Pastor of Northampton for 57 years and noted for preaching “The Safety of Appearing on the Day of Judgement in the Righteousness of Christ”. Jonathan Trumbull returned to Harvard in 1730, taking for his M.A. thesis: there were no contradictions in Scripture which could not be solved by reason. Similarly, William Williams chose for his thesis: the Scripture was perfect. This armament of David would serve them well during the Revolutionary War, as the Redcoats, whom the colonists referred to as “Philistines”, would fight the “New Israel” and learn the lesson of I Samuel 17:32-51, taught from a “City on a Hill”...”In his store on Lebanon hill”. Licensed to preach in 1731 by the Windham Congregational Association, Jonathan Trumbull preached at Lebanon, Colchester, Scotland, Goshen, Hebron, and was called to the ministry at Colchester.   

As other Ministers licensed by the “Standing Order”, he was grounded in the Calvinistic principle, in the tradition of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, that government rests on a covenant between the governors and the governed, based not “according to their humours, but according to the blessed will and law of God, as Biblically constituted. “This revolutionary concept, that inspired the puritans in England alone, to preserve the precious spark of liberty and the whole freedom of the English constitution”, would set the future course for “The Rebel Governor of Connecticut”.

Jonathan Trumbull was also in partnership with his brother Joseph, whose tragic loss at sea necessitated attention to his father’s business at Lebanon, where his father was the leading merchant. Jonathan married Faith Robinson (a descendant of the Pilgrims John and Pricilla Alden) in 1735 and had six children. By 1738, Jonathan had replaced his father as the leading merchant in Lebanon and for the next thirty years he remained an incredibly active businessman, trading with the West Indies and England using the vessels he had built or chartering others. After the death of his father in 1755, Jonathan moved his family into his father’s impressive home, which was built in 1740 and now owned by the DAR. He entered into several partnerships with his two eldest sons and various other merchants. One of their many contracts was with the General Assembly to supply the troops of the Colony in his Majesty’s service, with clothing and refreshments for one year for the sum of six thousand pounds. By the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Trumbull had accumulated properties at Lebanon including a house and store; a store, wharf and land at East Haddam; a lot and warehouse at Chelsea in Norwich; and a Gristmill, malthouse and several farms, which with other securities, were valued at eighteen thousand pounds. Now, recent shipping losses and worsening trade conditions would begin to destabilize his gains and approach the bankruptcy, which he obstinately tried to avoid. About this time, he petitioned the General Assembly to establish fairs in Lebanon to promote trade. While credit was the mainstay of his business in the Colonies, it was difficult to obtain in London. In September 1763, Jonathan sent his 26 year old son Joseph to London in the hope of promoting business opportunities. Writing to his father from London, Joseph would keep a watchful eye on the discussion of Colonial affairs in Parliament.

Jonathan Trumbull was as active in politics as he was in business. Elected as a Deputy to the General Assembly from Lebanon in 1733, he would become Speaker of the House in 1739 and was chosen Assistant and Member of the Council in 1740. He became increasingly involved with legal matters of the Colony including the Spanish Ship Case and boundary disputes with Massachusetts. In 1766, he was appointed Chief Judge of the Superior Court with Matthew Griswold, Eliphalet Dyer, and Roger Sherman, his associates on the Bench. In military affairs he was busy raising, provisioning and deploying the troops of the Colony. He rose from Lieutenant in the Troop of Horse of Windham County in 1735 to Colonel of the Twelfth Connecticut Regiment in 1753. Because the towns of the colony were actually “Ecclesiastical Societies”, religious matters in the General Assembly became more complicated after the Great Awakening.   The “Standing Order” divided into “Old Lights” and “New Lights” based on their viewpoint regarding local evangelism and Covenant issues. Although conciliatory to both views, Trumbull favored the “New Light” views of his Pastor, the Rev. Soloman Williams, as did most of the more radical Freemen east of the river.   His ability to resolve religious issues before the General Assembly in a reasoned manner, made him invaluable to the Council and respected by both Old and New Lights. Trumbull’s extensive experience with political, legal, military, trade, and religious matters, along with his Puritan understanding of the Biblical concept of Liberty, would reveal him as a formidable patriot Governor.

At the close of the French and Indian War, England tried to recover financially by enacting a chain of Parliamentary Measures to raise tax revenue from the colonies. While the taxes would be somewhat burdensome, Trumbull and others were aware of their conflict with Colonial Charters. His son Joseph, writing from London in December 1763, warned of the threats of impending taxation and loss of Charter Rights, with some Members of Parliament declaring that the Colonial Charters were given in high times by the King without consent of Parliament and are void. The passage of the Stamp Act on March 22, 1765 gave rise to the formation of the Sons of Liberty in Connecticut to prevent its implementation. Formed at Durkee’s Tavern on Bean Hill in Norwichtown, they were led by John Durkee, Israel Putnam of Pomfret and Hugh Ledlie, of Windham. Behind them stood some of the most prominent men in the Colony; the Rev. Stephen Johnson of Lyme, the Huntingtons of Norwich and Windham (Jedediah was Trumbulls son in law), Dyer of Windham (father of Trumbull’s daughter in law), Griswold of Lyme, and Trumbull and his son in law William Williams of Lebanon. In opposition to the Stamp Act, Trumbull would write to Gov. Fitch in August 1765, representing the freemen of Lebanon:  “The People in this part of the Colony, are very jealous of their Liberties; and desire that the most Vigorous exertions be made for the repeal of the Late Act of Parliament.......which they look on to be utterly subversive of their Rights and Priviledges both by Charter, and as English Men”.

The Sons of Liberty would spark widespread opposition to the Stamp Act and also to Governor Fitch, who believed it was his duty to take the oath required by the Stamp Act to insure its enforcement. Three members of the Council were required to administer the Oath and four members agreed. Seven members of the Council refused, believing it would be a condemnation of them all as freemen. Colonel Trumbull exclaimed “It is in violation of your Provincial Oath”. When the Oath was to be administered, Colonel Jonathan Trumbull started from his seat, seized his tri-cornered hat, avowing he would never witness a ceremony which so degraded liberty and the Colony. The Stamp Act was repealed on March 18, 1766, but his direct action against the Oath and his ties to the Sons of Liberty would place him in office as Deputy Governor at the election in 1766, with William Pitkin becoming Governor. Trumbull would clearly define the Constitutional position of Connecticut in response to Gen. Gage demanding to quarter troops in the Colony, and he was at his finest when defining the nature of Writs of Assistance.

On the death of Gov. Pitkin in 1769, Trumbull became Governor and would support the plight of Boston, as hostilities with England increased. The Boston Tea Party of December 1773 would lead to the Boston Port Bill, closing the port on June 1, 1774. In Lebanon, the bells tolled a solemn peal lasting all day. The door of the Town House was draped in black with the Port Bill affixed and read to the freeholders. A spirited resolution denounced it as an outrageous invasion of human liberty. The impending crisis would prompt Governor Trumbull to double the munitions of the Colony before its coast could be blockaded, and called on the Council “to procure three hundred barrels of gunpowder, fifteen tons of lead, and sixty thousand good flints”. A Council of Safety would be appointed to assist Governor Trumbull at Lebanon and he would convert his store into the “War Office” to conduct preparations for resistance. On March 22, 1775 he issues a Proclamation from Lebanon, with the advice of the Council, calling for a Day of Public Fasting and Prayer.   The day he chose, April 19, 1775, would begin the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord.

Having directed Connecticut’s Revolutionary War effort to a successful conclusion, Governor Trumbull retired in May 1784 and died at home on August 17, 1785.   In his letter of sympathy to the Governor’s Son, Jonathan, Jr., General George Washington would write of the Governor:   “A long & well spent life in the service of his Country justly entitled him to the first place among patriots.”

Turnbull, William Barclay David Donald

TURNBULL, WILLIAM BARCLAY DAVID DONALD (1811–1863), archivist and antiquary, born in St. James's Square, Edinburgh, on 6 Feb. 1811, was the only child of Walter Turnbull, sometime of the West Indies, afterwards of Leven Lodge near Edinburgh, and Torry-burn, Fifeshire. His mother was Robina, daughter of William Barclay, merchant, of Edinburgh. He first studied the law as apprentice to a writer to the signet, and shortly after attaining his majority he was admitted an advocate in 1832. In 1834 he founded a book-printing society which was named the Abbotsford Club in honour of the residence of Sir Walter Scott, and Turnbull continued to act as its secretary until his removal from Edinburgh. His parents were members of the established church of Scotland, but he became an episcopalian, being a very liberal contributor to the erection of the Dean Chapel; and afterwards in 1843 he was received into the Roman catholic church (Browne, Hist. of the Tractarian Movement, 1861, p. 73).

In 1852 he removed to London in order to study for the English bar, to which he was called, as a member of Lincoln's Inn, on 26 Jan. 1856. In 1858 he edited for the Rolls Series ‘The Buik of the Cronicles of Scotland; or a metrical version of the History of Hector Boece; by William Stewart’ (3 vols.). In August 1859 Turnbull was engaged as an assistant under the record commission, undertaking the examination of a portion of the foreign series of state papers. He completed two valuable volumes of calendars, which describe the foreign series of state papers for the reign of Edward VI (1860, 8vo) and for that of Mary (1861, 8vo). The fact that he was a Roman catholic, however, aroused the antagonism of the more extreme protestants, and a serious agitation arose against his employment. He was warmly supported by Lord Romilly, the master of the rolls, but, finding his position untenable in the face of constant suspicion and attack, he resigned on 28 Jan. 1861 (Fraser's Magazine, March 1861, p. 385). He subsequently brought an unsuccessful action against the secretary of the Protestant Alliance for libel (July 1861). The Alliance continued the persecution, and its ‘Monthly Letter,’ dated 16 March 1863, contained a list of documents stated to be missing from the state papers, the insinuation being that they were purloined by Turnbull; but a letter from the master of the rolls to the home secretary, officially published, shows that there was absolutely no foundation for the charge. From the time of Turnbull's resignation ill-health and anxiety broke down a frame that was naturally vigorous, and he died at Barnsbury on 22 April 1863, and was buried in the grounds of the episcopal church at the Dean Bridge, Edinburgh.

He married, 17 Dec. 1838, Grace, second daughter of James Dunsmure of Edinburgh, who survived him. There is a portrait of Turnbull, a folio plate in lithography, drawn by James Archer, and printed by Fr. Schenk at Edinburgh.

He formed a very extensive and valuable collection of books, which was dispersed by auction in a fourteen days' sale in November 1851. Another library, subsequently collected by him, was sold in London by Sotheby & Wilkinson, 27 Nov.—3 Dec. 1863 (Herald and Genealogist, ii. 170).

For the Abbotsford Club he edited: 1. ‘Ancient Mysteries,’ 1835. 2. ‘Compota Domestica Familiarum de Bukingham et Angoulême,’ 1836, and emendations to the same volume, 1841. 3. ‘Account of the Monastic Treasures in England,’ 1836. 4. ‘Mind, Will, and Understanding, a Morality,’ 1837, being a supplement to the ‘Ancient Mysteries.’ 5. ‘Arthour and Merlin, a metrical romance,’ 1838. 6. ‘The Romances of Sir Guy of Warwick and Rembrun his son,’ 1840. 7. ‘The Cartularies of Balmerino and Lindores,’ 1841. 8. ‘Extracta è variis Chronicis Scocie,’ 1842. 9. ‘A Garden of Grave and Godlie Flowers: by Alexander Gardyne, 1609; The Theatre of Scotish Kings, by A. G., 1709; and ‘Miscellaneous Poems, by J. Lundie,’ 1845.

Other old authors edited by Turnbull were: 10. ‘The Blame of Kirk-Buriall, by William Birnie,’ 1836. 11. ‘The Anatomie of Abuses, by Philip Stubbes,’ 1836. 12. ‘The Romance of Bevis of Hamptoun,’ 1837. 13. ‘Horæ Subsecivæ: by Joseph Henshawe, D.D., Bishop of Peterborough,’ 1839. 14. ‘Legendæ Catholicæ, a lytle boke of seyntlie gestes,’ 1840. 15. ‘The Visions of Tundale,’ 1843. 16. ‘Domestic Details of Sir David Hume of Crossrig,’ 1843. 17. ‘Selection of Letters of Mary Queen of Scots, translated from the Collection of Prince Labanoff,’ 1845. 18. ‘Sir Thomas More's Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation,’ 1847. 19. ‘An Account of the Chapter erected by William [Bishop] titular Bishop of Chalcedon; by William Sergeant,’ 1853.

For the ‘Library of Translations’ he translated from the French, 20. Audin's ‘History of the Life, Writings, and Doctrines of Luther,’ 2 vols. London, 1854, 8vo.

For the ‘Library of Old Authors’ he edited 21. ‘The Poetical Works of Richard Crashaw,’ 1856. 22. ‘The Poetical Works of William Drummond of Hawthornden,’ 1856. 23. ‘The Poetical Works of Robert Southwell,’ 1856.

His genealogical works are: 24. ‘The Claim of Molineux Disney, Esq., to the Barony of Hussey, 1680,’ Edinburgh, 1836, 8vo. 25. ‘The Stirling Peerage,’ 1839. 26. ‘Factions of the Earl of Arran touching the Restitution of the Duchy of Chatelherault, 1685,’ Edinburgh, 1843, 8vo. 27. ‘British American Association and Nova Scotia Baronets,’ 1846. 28. ‘Memoranda of the State of the Parochial Registers of Scotland,’ 1849.

He formed considerable collections for a continuation of William Robertson's ‘Proceedings relating to the Peerage of Scotland’ (1790), and a folio manuscript volume containing a portion of this continuation was purchased by Mr. Boone at the sale of Turnbull's library in 1863 for 4l. 12s. Another of his projects was a Monasticon for Scotland, for which he obtained a numerous subscription list.
[Gent. Mag. 1863, i. 805; Times, 24 April 1863, p. 12, col. 4; Tablet, April and May 1863, pp. 262, 285, 300, 301; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 515, 552.]

William Turnbull (1729–1796)

TURNBULL, WILLIAM (1729?–1796), physician, born at Hawick about 1729, belonged to the family of Turnbull of Bedrule in Roxburghshire. He was educated at the Hawick town school and at the university of Edinburgh, and, afterwards studied at Glasgow. About 1757 he settled at Wooler in Northumberland, and while there was chosen physician of the Bamborough infirmary. By the advice of Sir John Pringle [q. v.] he went to London in 1777, and shortly after was appointed physician to the eastern dispensary. He died in London on 2 May 1796. He was the author of several medical treatises of little importance. A collective edition of his ‘Works,’ with a memoir by his son, William Turnbull, was published in 1805, 12mo. Turnbull contributed the ‘medicinal, chemical, and anatomical’ articles to the ‘New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences’ (London, 1778, fol.).
[Jeffrey's Hist. of Roxburghshire, 1864, iv. 360; Gent. Mag. 1796, i. 444; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. v. 276.]

TURNBULL, GEORGE (1562?–1633)

TURNBULL, GEORGE (1562?–1633), Scots jesuit, was born about 1562 in the diocese of St. Andrews, and admitted to the novitiate in 1591 at the age of twenty-two. For thirty years he was professor at the college of Pont-à-Mousson, and he died at Reims on 11 May 1633. In answer to a work of Robert Baron [q. v.] on the scripture canon, he published at Reims in 1628 ‘Imaginarii Circuli Quadratura Catholica, seu de objecto formali et regula fidei, adversus Robertum Baronem ministrum.’ To this Baron replied, whereupon Turnbull published ‘In Sacræ Scholæ Calumniatorem, et calumniæ duplicatorem, pro Tetragonismo,’ Reims, 1632. Turnbull was also author of ‘Commentarii in Universam Theologiam,’ which was ready for the press when the author died.
[Gordon's Scots Affairs (Spalding Club); De Backer's Bibliothèque des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, vol. vi.]

Turnbull, John (fl. 1800–1813)

TURNBULL, JOHN (fl. 1800–1813), traveller, was a sailor in the merchant service. While second mate of the Barwell in 1799 he visited China, and came to the conclusion that the Americans were carrying on a lucrative trade in north-west Asia. On his return home he induced some enterprising merchants to fit out a vessel to visit those parts. Sailing from Portsmouth in May 1800 in the Margaret, a ship of ten guns, he touched at Madeira and at Cape Colony, which had recently passed into British hands. On 5 Jan. 1801 he arrived at Botany Bay. The north-west speculation turning out a failure, Turnbull resolved to visit the islands of the Pacific, and devoted the next three years to exploring New Zealand, the Society Islands, the Sandwich Islands, and many parts of the South Seas. At Otaheite he encountered the agents of the London Missionary Society, to whose zeal he bore testimony while criticising their methods. After visiting the Friendly Islands he returned home by Cape Horn in the Calcutta, arriving in England in June 1804. In the following year he published the notes of his travels, under the title ‘A Voyage round the World,’ London, 8vo. Turnbull's narrative is interesting, his criticisms being often acute and always temperate. He deals with a period when the Australian colonies were in their infancy and the South Seas little known. A second edition of the work appeared in 1813 with considerable additions. The first edition was published in an abbreviated form in ‘A Collection of Voyages and Travels,’ vol. iii. London, 1806, 4to.
[Turnbull's Voyage round the World; Edinburgh Review, 1806, ix. 332; Gent. Mag. 1813, i. 547.]

Turnbull, Sir Richard Gordon

turnbull sir richard 1958Sir Richard Gordon Turnbull (1909 - 1998) was a British colonial governor and the last governor of the British mandate of Tanganyika from 1958–1961. Following the country's independence, he was governor-general from 9 December 1961 – 9 December 1962.

Turnbull, Edward & Turnbull, Richard

Turnbull & Stockdale was a leading producers of fine textiles based in Lancashire in the UK and operating from the late 1890’s until the mid 1960’s with that name. It employed some of the most renowned names in textile design in its time, including Lewis F Day (amongst others). It was bought by Reeds and became part of a wider print company, but in the mid 1960’s was re-started by my father Edward Turnbull, who had the foresight to preserve the print archive. The firm continues to this day, and is still headed by the Turnbull family (including me, Richard Turnbull) – our father, Edward, is well and thriving although retired from daily involvement.

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