TURNBULL, WILLIAM (d. 1454), bishop of Glasgow and founder of Glasgow University, was descended from the Turnbulls of Minto, Roxburghshire. After entering holy orders he was for some time an official at the court of Eugenius IV. In 1440 he was made prebend of Balenrick, and in 1445 keeper of the privy seal of Scotland. In 1447 he was promoted to the bishopric of Glasgow, the consecration taking place in 1448. The papal bull authorising the university of Glasgow on the Bologna pattern on 7 Jan. 1450–1, states that it was founded at the instance of James II (who granted a charter 20 April 1453) by the interest and care of William Turnbull, then the bishop of Glasgow. About 1460 the ‘pædagogium’ was moved from ‘the Rottenrow’ to the site in the High Street, which the university occupied until 1870. Turnbull died at Rome on 3 Sept. 1454.
[Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis, 1854; Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis (Spalding Club); Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vol. v.; Keith's Scottish Bishops; Glasgow University, Old and New, 1891; Rashdall's Universities of Europe, ii. 304.]
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, 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
