“Every old inhabitant of Florida knows of Andrew Turnbull.... Reminders of Turnbull are plentiful throughout the State. On the palm covered banks of the North Indian River stands New Smyrna itself, named for Smyrna, Asia Minor, the birthplace of Turnbull’s wife.” Spain yielded East and West Florida to England in exchange for Havana in 1763, but few Englishmen could be enticed to settle in this warm wilderness. Dr. Andrew Turnbull was an exceptional forty-eight-year-old London physician, who undertook this pioneer adventure with his Greek-born wife and family. Dr. Turnbull selected a site south of present-day Ormond and Daytona Beaches, anticipating a future settlement peopled by Greek settlers. To this end, Dr. Turnbull sailed to Greece, Italy, and Minorca, recruiting settlers for New Smyrna, and arrived in St. Augustine, Florida in November of 1767.
The author opens with a brief look at the early colonization of Florida, relating Dr. Turnbull’s pioneer efforts, and the founding of New Smyrna. Subjects covered include: the uprising of 1768; English financial support; hardships and illness; irrigation; governors: Grant, Moultrie and Tonyn; Moultrie, Turnbull and Drayton’s secret flight to England to avoid seizure; the Revolution; cruelty and murder, the fall of New Smyrna, and the ultimate division of New Smyrna property. This work is enhanced with brief excerpts from letters, illustrations, a bibliography and a full-name plus subject index.
Carita Doggett
(1919, ?), 2016, 5½x8½, paper, , 232 pp.
ISBN: 9780788400193
101-D0019
