The Governor Jonathon Trumbull House owns 12 pieces of custom-made china that were made in England by the famous Leeds company. None of the pieces have a maker’s mark which indicates they were made in the later 18th or early 19th century. They have a red Greek key pattern with an inset of a bull’s head which is part of the family’s crest.
The ancestors of the bearers of the Trumbull surname lived among the Boernicians, an ancient Scottish tribe. It is a name for a man named Rule (sometimes Ruel) who saved King Robert the Bruce at Stirling Park from a charging bull by turning the bull’s head. According to tradition, the King rewarded Rule with lands in Bedrule and instructed him to change his name to Turnbull.
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