A family letter gives her back a voice
1829–1912
Resilience from Great Fire of Timaru and bankruptcy
A wooden chair in the South Canterbury Museum collection is recorded under Richard Turnbull’s name. It inspired a search for his wife, Mary Hepzibah Turnbull.
The chair is a useful clue, but no evidence has yet shown that Mary sat in it, polished it, carried it from England or saved it from a fire. Her strongest surviving connection to us is not the chair. It is a letter written in her own words.
Mary Hepzibah Watts was born in Oxfordshire in 1829. She married draper Richard Turnbull in 1851, and the couple sailed for Canterbury aboard the Fatima. They arrived at Lyttelton in December that year. Their first child was born soon afterwards and died as an infant. Earlier family research places the Turnbulls at Halswell before they moved to Timaru around 1864, when Richard entered business with David Clarkson.
The family lived beside the Clarkson and Turnbull store near the corner of Stafford and George Streets. Their home and the wooden shop were destroyed during Timaru’s Great Fire in December 1868.
Most accounts describe the rebuilding, business and political career of Richard. Mary’s 1881 letter to her cousin Edmund Jackson provides a different view.
As reproduced in a private Turnbull family manuscript, Mary said the family had ten children living at home. She also recorded that they employed no servant and that everyone contributed to the household work. The letter should be checked against the original manuscript, but it is presently the best direct evidence of how Mary described her own circumstances.
That evidence matters because it allows us to say something specific without inventing a domestic scene. Mary was helping sustain a large household whose members shared the work. She remained in Timaru while Richard developed businesses, served in local government and entered Parliament.
Richard died in 1890. Mary lived for more than another two decades.
A contemporary Timaru Herald obituary reported her death on 4 January 1912, described her as the widow of Richard Turnbull and gave her age as 83. This contradicts the present WuHoo timeline, which says that she died in 1902. The contemporary notice, supported by cemetery and family records, makes 1829–1912 the best-supported life span.
Mary’s contribution should not be inflated into undocumented business leadership. What survives is still meaningful. She migrated while pregnant, raised a large family, lived through the destruction and rebuilding of the family home, and left a rare written account of how the household functioned.
The chair may have begun the history hunt. Mary’s letter is the evidence that allows her own voice to enter it.
Read the existing WuHoo story: Imagining Mary Hepzibah Turnbull’s Life Through a Chair
Her sons
David Clarkson Turnbull established a grain and shipping business in Strathallan Street, Timaru, in 1894, when he was 23 years old. His brother, Arthur H. Turnbull, joined him in several early ventures, including chartering sailing ships and steamships that loaded cargo at Timaru before calling at Lyttelton. The business grew into D. C. Turnbull & Co. Ltd. and remained closely associated with the Turnbull family for generations. Still operating from 1 Strathallan Street as of 2026, it celebrated its centenary in 1994, when Hugh Turnbull reportedly described it as the only Timaru company at that time to have completed 100 years in business. David’s great-grandson, Andrew Turnbull, later served as managing director, continuing the family’s involvement into the twenty-first century.
Another of Mary Turnbull’s sons, James Stuart Turnbull, became one of Timaru’s most influential architects. Born in Timaru in 1864, he trained in an architect’s office in Melbourne before returning to establish his own practice in Timaru around 1895. Over a career spanning more than 40 years, he designed churches, hotels, commercial buildings and many substantial homes, including the Oxford, Chalmers Presbyterian Church, the Grosvenor Hotel and Job Brown’s Beehive Stores in Temuka. In about 1920, he entered a partnership with Percy Watts Rule, and their practice helped shape much of Timaru’s distinctive twentieth-century streetscape. James retired in 1938 and died in 1947.
Sources
Timaru Herald, 5 January 1912: Obituary of Mrs Turnbull
Contemporary confirmation that Mary died on 4 January 1912, aged 83, and was from Oxfordshire.
Philip Turnbull, Richard Turnbull: A Timaru Pioneer, private family manuscript
Reportedly reproduces Mary’s 1881 letter and provides family chronology. The original manuscript and letter should be inspected and fully cited before publication.
Existing WuHoo research
Provides the migration, family, business-location, fire and museum-object pathways. Several statements require correction or reframing.
Births, Deaths and Marriages Historical Records
The government index should be used to confirm her death registration and the registrations of the children.