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Turnbull
Motto: I saved the King
The name Turnbull originates in the Borders and while well known, was rather a family as distinct from a clan, and its origins are the subject of varying opinions with different authorities. The traditional story is that one ‘Rule’, of great strength saved King Robert the Bruce from a wild bull when the king was in danger from it while hunting. For this timely service Rule obtained a grant of lands by the name of Bedrule and a new name. Hector Boece (1526) appears to be the source for this tale.
As with many Scottish name histories, the variety of spellings in the past causes much confusion. It may be an Old English name ‘Trumbald’ – strongly bold. The Turnbulls are certainly from the Jedburgh area, and although a Turnbull was Provost at that time in 1561, they were one of the most turbulent Border families.
One John Turnebulls, nicknamed ‘outwith the sword’, was a Scots prisoner of war in England in 1400. William Turnbull, Bishop of Glasgow, procured a charter from the Pope to establish a university in Glasgow 1450; the University of Glasgow was founded in 1451. The tartans of the family were adopted in 1978; a combination of the Douglas and Bruce setts, owing to that family connection to those families.
Choose from one of the Turnbull tartans listed below:
