Turnbull, William Wallace

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Elizabeth W. McGahan, “TURNBULL, WILLIAM WALLACE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/turnbull_william_wallace_12E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Businessman and philanthropist; b. 23 May 1828 in Bear River, N.S.; m. 13 June 1854 Julia Caroline Hatheway, sister of George Luther Hatheway, in Maugerville, N.B., and they had two sons and three daughters; d. 26 June 1899 in Saint John, N.B.
    • William Wallace Turnbull was the second son of William Baxter Turnbull, whose grandparents had emigrated from Edinburgh, and Relief Ann Tucker, a descendant of loyalists. In 1846 he moved to Saint John, where he was employed as a clerk by W. D. W. Hubbard, an auctioneer. After less than two years he became a bookkeeper in the firm of G. and J. Salter.
    • In 1851 Turnbull started his own business as a wholesale grocer and provisions merchant, and a few years afterwards also engaged in shipowning and the carrying trade. Although he was described in an obituary as “the most successful merchant” in Saint John, he began Turnbull and Company with only $200 and, possibly because of “a good number of bad debts and unwise ventures” in his early business life, he spent many years before acquiring praise from the commercial community. Following the great fire of 1877, in which his South Market Wharf premises were lost, Turnbull moved to Ward Street and began a partnership with Joseph Flewelling Merritt. Six years later Gabriel Wetmore Merritt joined them. Turnbull was an active participant on the council of the Saint John Board of Trade, serving from 1867 to 1872 and from 1886 to 1887.
    • As a businessman in a city in the Maritimes during a period of economic change, Turnbull was most cognizant of the changes resulting from confederation. He was strongly opposed to the National Policy, claiming that it wrung “large sums in taxes from the pockets of the people, without . . . [giving] them . . . any compensating advantages.” He favoured free trade as being “thoroughly sound in principle” and capable of working “the greatest good to the greatest number of our people.” Although not actively involved in politics, Turnbull, perhaps not surprisingly, was a Liberal.
    • Turnbull was survived by his wife and five children, one of whom, Wallace Rupert Turnbull, pioneered aeronautical research in Canada in his laboratory at Rothesay, N.B. At the time of his death he was probably the wealthiest businessman in Saint John, his estate being estimated at $750,000. In addition to the bequest to the home for incurables and $10,000 to St John’s Church, he left substantial sums to his children. He instructed that the money for his daughters was to be for “the sole separate use of each of them and not to be subject to the management of their husbands.”
  • Great Grandson of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=11093
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10824818/william-wallace-turnbull