APPENDIX I. 371 



for me, principally by Mr. John Turnbull, of Abbey St. Bathan's, 

 near Dunse, Berwickshire, and also of Frederick Street, Edinburgh, 

 who believes that now (its acknowledged original heads, the Turn- 

 bulls of Bedrule, being extinct) be has probably as good a claim to 

 the chieftainship of the clan as any one else. Similar accounts on 

 some points have been given to me by other gentlemen of the same 

 name. 



There is no doubt of the existence of an universal and ancient 

 tradition as to the origin of the name, particularly in the Border 

 Country, where the Turnbulls lived. Their country was the valley 

 of Rule- Water, in Roxburghshire, a little way from Jedburgh, and 

 the castle of the head of the clan was Bedrule (or, as anciently 

 written, Badyruel), where considerable foundations still remain. The 

 tradition is that the family was originally Rule, or Rouel, derived 

 from the river Rule- Water, which was a tributary of the river 

 Teviot, and that the name Turnbull was assumed in consequence of 

 this exploit, which is said to have taken place at Callander, near 

 Stirling : William Roule being there in attendance on the king. It 

 seems to me probable that when he changed his name his collateral 

 relatives in his native valley, whose chief he was, changed theirs 

 also. And though there is no record of the grant of arms to the 

 original Turnbull,* the various families of this name have always 

 borne the bull's head on their coat of arms, in reference to his 

 exploit. The coat which they bore nearly three hundred and fifty 

 years since is given in the MS. emblazoned by " Sir David Lindesay 

 of the Mount, Loixl Lyon King-at-arms," f which bears date 1542, but 

 certainly refers back to a considerably earlier period, for therein are 

 contained the arms of families which were then extinct. The arms 

 of Turnbull, as given there, are, " Argent, three bulls' heads erased 

 sable ; " and these are the arms which have been used with differences 



* There is no doubt that many or most of the old records belonging to the 

 Lyon Office (which answers to the English Heralds' College) have been lost — it is 

 traditionally said, by fire. The present Lyon King attributes it, however, to 

 other causes. Many of his predecessors kept the records in their own houses, 

 and on their death these papers got mixed with their own, and were destroyed or 

 dispersed. It is in this way that Sir David Lindsay's MS. is not in the Lyon 

 Office, but in the Advocates' Library, where it has been fortunately preserved. 

 This destruction of ancient heraldic documents makes it very difficult to traco 

 the arms of many Scottish families very far back. 



t Sir W. Scott's " Marmion," canto iv., stanza 7. 



y 2 



