James Alexander Turnbull

Younger brother of our Great Great Great Grandfather

James Alexander Turnbull was born on 8 January 1822 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He came to New South Wales with his parents and youngest brother Archibald on the SS Macclesfield on 23 May 1833.

He married Sarah Richmond (nee Barnes - a widow) on 23 January 1843; St Lawrence Parish, Sydney, NSW. In some records she is recorded as Barron, in others Barnes. Sarah Barnes was born c 1822 in Parramatta, the daughter of two convicts, William Barnes and Anna Hewlett. More about them here.

In 1843 James was recorded as a shoemaker like many othere family members. In 1857 he was living in Bathurst Street Sydney.

Sarah died at Kingston (Newtown) Sydney 17 Apr 1865 aged about 43 from cancer of the womb. Her death certificate shows her father's name as Burns, a blacksmith.

James then married Mary Emily Talbott (nee Henry - another widow), daughter of James Henry and Mary Jenkins, on 29 June 1866; Sydney, NSW. She was born 23 May 1834, died 29 Jan 1893. At the time of their marriage she already had 6 children from her previous marriage. James and Mary moved to Melbourne about 1866 and he was employed as a boot rivetter at Emerald Hill in 1868. They moved back to Sydney about 1872 and settled in the Kogarah area.

James died on 4 June 1897 in Rookwood Asylum, Sydney, Australia, at age 75. It is not known where or when Mary died.

Family 1: Sarah Barnes

• Harriett Turnbull b. 11 December 1843. She married her first cousin James Archibald Turnbull (son of Henry) at her father's house in Kingston (near Newtown NSW) on 13 October 1862 and they had 9 children. They were divorced in Melbourne on 20 September 1878 after she had "eloped" with Frederick Horne. 15 days later she went through a form of marriage with him, at the Wesleyan Parsonage, Latrobe, Tasmania. Frederick was a bachelor aged 24 years (Harriet was almost 34 at the time). It is not known what happened with that marriage, however, believing that the marriage was null and void because it was contracted before the legal time limit of her divorce from Archibald, she married Edmund Burn in Sydney in September 1889. In November 1898 she took legal proceedings against him in the North Melbourne Police Court on a charge of desertion. It is not known what the result of these proceedings were, but she married a fourth time to Norman R Cooper about 1909 when she was 66 years of age! She died in 1929, listed as Harriet Cooper at Murrumbeena near Melbourne.
• James Alexander Turnbull b. c 1845, d. c 1890
• William Morier Turnbull b. c 1847, d. c 1915
• Elizabeth Sarah Turnbull b. 2 May 1850
• Henry Turnbull b. 18 May 1852, d. 30 Oct 1915
• John Morier Turnbull b. c 1856, d. c 1931
• Samuel Wearing Turnbull b. c 1858, d. 24 Nov 1927
• Edward Australia Turnbull b. 1860
• Lavinia Sarah Turnbull b. c 1862, d. c 1867

Family 2: Mary Emily Henry

• Alfred Alonzo Turnbull b. c 1867, d. 12 Oct 1929
• Archibald Adolphin Turnbull b. 1 Oct 1869
• Virginia Edith Turnbull b. c 1871
• Herbert Ernest George Turnbull b. c 1874
• Adenia Priscilla Turnbull b. 1 Apr 1876, d. 30 Jun 1964
• Charles Abbott Turnbull b. c 1878, d. c 1938
• Leopold Aemilius Turnbull b. c 1882

Source: Turnbull Clan web site and "A Collateral of Blantyre - A History of the Turnbull Family" by Samuel J Turnbull 1989 (ISBN 0 7316 6513 9)

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