Clan Turnbull

History

The Turnbulls are a Roxburghshire family. The Turnbull Clan Association places their roots on the lands of Rule, in the parish of Hobkirk, beside Rule Water. It names two early Rule chiefs, a father and son, but it cites no particular records for them. We have found no independent source for the claimed dates, so we do not repeat them. The early line is plausible but unproven.

The name has a famous story. In the tale, a man called Rule turned the head of a charging bull and so saved Robert the Bruce. The grateful king is said to have given him the name Turnbull, along with the lands of Bedrule. The Association and Electric Scotland both present this as tradition. Scotland.org gives it as a legend recorded by the historian Boece, and calls it unlikely. It considers the Old English word trumbald, meaning strong or bold, the more likely source of the name.

The legend is often linked to the single combat before the battle of Halidon Hill in 1333. Scotland.org and Electric Scotland tell how a Turnbull called out the English army and was slain by Sir Robert Benhale, a knight from Norfolk. The Association instead calls the English knight Sir Robert Venal and names the Scot Sir Walter Rule. The sources do not agree, and none we opened gives records. Scotland.org also mentions a charter from Robert the Bruce to a William Turnbull in 1315, for land near Philiphaugh.

The family seat was Bedrule Castle, on Rule Water. Electric Scotland and the Association both name it as the chief's home. Fatlips Castle at Minto Craig is described by Electric Scotland as a former Turnbull stronghold. The Turnbulls were known as a rough Border family, and the Association says they feuded with the Armstrongs, though it gives no source for the claim that they could raise 500 men.

The best documented Turnbull is William Turnbull, Bishop of Glasgow. Electric Scotland says he came from the Turnbulls of Minto and became keeper of the privy seal in 1445. He became bishop in 1447 and was consecrated in 1448. In January 1450 he obtained a papal bull to found a university in Glasgow, which opened in 1451. He died in Rome on 3 September 1454.

The Association says that after the union of the Crowns in 1603, many Border families were scattered to England, Ireland and the colonies. It says the name then appears in other forms, such as Rule in Donegal and Trimble in Antrim. Electric Scotland says John F. Turnbull of Hawick founded the Turnbull Clan Association in 1977. COSCA lists no chief for the name, and its page marks Turnbull as a sept of Douglas.