author
Robert Turnbull
1809–1877
A Scottish-born Baptist minister who built a long career in the United States, he wrote on religion, travel, and history with the energy of a public speaker and editor. His books reflect both pastoral work and a wide curiosity about the wider world.
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About the author
Born in Scotland in 1809, Robert Turnbull was educated at the University of Glasgow and began his ministry before moving to the United States in 1833. He went on to serve Baptist congregations in several cities, and he became especially associated with Hartford, Connecticut, where he spent many years as a pastor.
Turnbull was more than a preacher. He also worked as an editor and wrote across a surprisingly broad range of subjects, including religious biography, church life, travel, and popular description. Among the works linked to him are Olympia Morata and The World We Live In, showing an author comfortable moving between devotional and general-interest writing.
He died in Hartford in 1877. Although he is not widely known today, the record of his ministry and books suggests a nineteenth-century author who wrote for ordinary readers and church communities alike, aiming to inform, encourage, and engage.