John TURNBULL

1741 - 1799  (58 years)

• Name	John TURNBULL
  Born	1741	Dumfries, Scotland
  Gender	Male
  _UID	0726D73E82F94B60858EA0FC29725AECF8FB
  Died	Aug 1799	Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  Person ID	I112681296	Carney Wehofer 2024 Genealogy
  Last Modified	5 Feb 2012

  
  

  Family	Chickasaw Woman,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Children	1. George TURNBULL,   b. Abt 1791, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory ,   d. 1860, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, Blue County  (Age ~ 69 years)
  Last Modified	29 Aug 2016
  Family ID	F50573692	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  From Lesa Frommer The Turnbull name among the Choctaws originated with Scotsman John Turnbull, who was born about 1741 and came to Mobile, Alabama in about 1760. John was a trader among the Chickasaws and Choctaws and was always involved in a great deal of controversy and intrigue among both tribes, and the Spanish and English. George, his son by a Chickasaw woman who was said to be a close relative (daughter or sister) of Chickasaw Chief Taskiatoka, was Brashears' father and Turner's grandfather. Taskiatoka was very close to John and once bartered a number of his Spanish prisoners for John's release from a Spanish prison in 1781. He was supposedly the first white man to use the Natchez Trace as a trading route. He was all over this area, especially Memphis, MS, LA, AL and the famous Chickasaw Bluffs where John was instrumental in obtaining permission from the Chickasaws for the Spanish to build the strategic fort (trading post). Why George and William, who were clearly half Chickasaw, were so closely related to the Choctaws at this point is unclear. However, they both married Choctaw women and were deeply involved in their father John Turnbull's trading business among the Choctaws. He even took them back to England with him once. William married Judith Perry, daughter of Hardy Perry and Anolah. Although John eventually married a white wife and had a sizable family with her, he still regarded his half breed Indian sons and daughter Sylvia, so highly that he recognized his "illegitimate children" (children of all marriages not solemnized in the Catholic church at this time were classified "illegitimate") in his will and left them inheritances considered very handsome for the times. At the time of his death in 1799 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana he was an enormously wealthy man, owning thousands of acres of land from Spanish land grants in Mississippi and Louisiana, including the large plantation with hundreds of slaves where he died. John Joyce had been his partner in building an inordinately successful trading business in Mississippi and Louisiana. George and William are mentioned frequently in the history of this area as John Turnbull's " half breed Chickasaw sons." They were born in the Chickasaw nation perhaps close to present day Memphis, Tennessee, probably in the early to mid 1760's. --Frankie James Rosedown was built by one of the white sons, (mother Catherine Rucker) Daniel, second to his youngest child, of our patriarch John Turnbull, the Scottish trader to the Choctaws and Chickasaws. John recognized 3 of his Indian children in his will, George and William were presumed to be of the same mother, an unknown Chickasaw woman, but they became Choctaw by both marrying into the tribe. They were grown young men when John died. He taken them into his business. I have calculated they were born mid to late 1760s. They had a half sister Sylvia, also Chickasaw, mother Isabell "Belcy" Perry. George is our line-it is fairly well documented he was close to 90 when he died in Indian Territory in 1860. He is very much an enigma though as to how he lived out his remaining years and what happened to the wife who came with him on the trail of tears in 1833 with 3 month old babe in arms, John P. For some time now, I have thought there was a great deal of reason for his wife to remain unknown. Either she was a high-born lady like Chief Greenwood LeFlore's sister Sylvia, which may have been politically not good or they may not have bothered marrying or she may have been a lady much too low born for the status of being the very wealthy John Turnbull's daughter-in-law. I calculate she would have been born in about 1795-98. She may or may not have been our GGGreat Grandmother. There was some sort of funny very kinky hair which cropped up among our Turner B. Turnbull and Jerico's children. It was also in my grandfather's siblings. Indians don't have hair like that. Makes one wonder just a bit. Old John died in Baton Rouge in 1799 in his own bed from apparent natural causes. Daniel and his wife built Rosedown in 1833 and the live oaks that line the long drive up to the front were planted in 1835, when they moved in. Harriet, his wife was a descendant of Martha Washington wife of first presisdent George. Harriet was a superb horticulturist. Supposedly she was the one who introduced azaleas to America from France, but wasn't given credit for it. So Daniel is our half something or other. According to some that I read although Daniel had 5 plantations, he was not in favor of slavery. I think Daniel died in 1861. - Frankie James