Robert Turnbull

ROBERT TURNBULL, the 13th clerk of Brunswick county, who was elected by the justices qualified as clerk on the 23d day of December 1816 and held the office until his death on the 17th day of December 1839.

The subject of this sketch was a son of Robert Turnbull, the elder, who came to this country from Scotland before the end of the Revolutionary war and who was a large importing merchant the name of the firm of which he was a member being Dundass and Turnbull. The younger Robert Turnbull was born at White Hill, Prince George county, Virginia about three miles from Petersburg on the 21st of December 1778. He graduated with distinction at Harvard College, Massachusetts and afterwards practiced law. On the 24th of December 1801, he married Elizabeth Jones Stith who was a descendant of Colonel Drury Stith, the first clerk of the county. Soon after marrying, the young couple removed to the county of Brunswick. At the time of his election to the clerkship of the county court of Brunswick, he had been the clerk of the old district court. Mr and Mrs Robert Turnbull raised a large family of children, three of whom are now living. Mrs Turnbull lived to an advanced age and died in the year 1871. Mr Turnbull was greatly respected by the people of the county. He was the friend and confidential adviser of a large number of its citizens. At his death, resolutions of respect to his memory were passed and spread upon the records of the court and it is said that his old classmates at Harvard planted a tree at the college in commemoration of him.

His son succeeded him as Brunswick county clerk.

• From: Johnson, Frederick. Memorials of Old Virginia Clerks, J.P. Bell Company, Lynchburg, Virginia. 1888. p. 105.

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