INTRODUCTION

The name of Rule is of quite ancient origin in the border counties of Scotland and in the north of England. It first appears in the fourth or eight century when St. Regulus or St. Rule (See Part II) arrived on the shores of Scotland at what is now St. Andrews in Fife. There is another possibility which has been put forward that the family may have descended from Richard De Rollo, also known as Richard De Rule, who apparently came to the British Isles about the time of William the Conqueror. This individual came from Normandy and is said to be a descendent of Rollo of Norway (860 – 932). At any rate, he was given extensive grants of lands and property in Scotland and England. Still, the first authentic records of the name appear about 1128 when person named Adam Roule, Richard Roule, Hugo Roule, William Roule and John Roule are noted in the Scottish border county of Roxburgh. The next mention of the name appears in the same county about 1214 and is of Thomas of Rule, Richard of Rule and Alan of Rule. At this point, it must be stated that these records are very incomplete but in time may be augmented and improved.

There is an area in the south central part of Roxburgh-Shire that is known as the Valley of the Rule. This valley contains a small river called Rule Water, and there are several towns along its course that bear, in part, the name of Rule, such as Bedrule, Abboturle, Hallrule, Town of Rule, etc.

Also from this valley comes the branch of the Rule Family whose name is now Turnbull. As the story is told, in the history of Selkirkshire, a William Rule, who was a giant of a man, was on one occasion (about 1315) on a hunting trip with King Robert the Bruce when he, the king, was attacked by a wild bison or bull. Grasping it by its horns, turned its head to one side and killed it. He was given the name of “Turn-E-Bull” by King Robert and from him has descended a quite extensive family. This story is also referred to in the register of the great seal of Scotland. Leyden describes the incident in verve, in part as follows:

“On Scotia’s lord he rush’d with lightning speed, bent his strong

neck to toss the startled steed. His arms robust the hardy hunter

flung around his bending horns, and upward wrung with writhing

force. His neck retorted round and roll’d the panting monster on the

ground, crush’d with enormous strength his bony skull, and courtiers

hail’d the man who ‘turned the bull’.”

William rule or Turnbull was killed in 1333 at the Battle of Halidon Hill in single combat with an English knight, Sir Robert Benhale. It would appear that his family was the most important one in the valley at the time and continued to live there under the new name and from there have spread to different parts of the world. The present head of this family is known as “Turnbull of Bedrule” and now resides in Melbourne, Australia. A very excellent history of the Canadian branch of this family has been written by John F. Turnbull of Orillia, Ontario, Canada which opens with the foregoing story of William Rule and the bull. For the Turnbull coat of arms, see part V.

Many members of the Rule family were land holders in the 12^th, 13^th, and 14^th centuries, and a number of them held titles and bore coats of arms. See part V.

Many of them were ecclesiastics of various faiths, primarily Protestant, since the days of the reformation, and this ministerial leaning has come down in the family to the present day. Quite a number of them have been teachers and professors. One, the Rev. Gilbert Rule was a regent of Glasgow University, sub-principal of King’s College, Aberdeen, and Principal of Edinburgh University from 1640 until his death in 1701. Another, James Rule went out to Tasmania and became its minister of education. Many members of the family were engaged in the building trades-roofers, masons, cabinet-makers, etc. But they seem to have been, in general, sufficiently well educated to change over to the job of teaching school when called upon to do so. A number have followed careers in the army, the navy, the diplomatic service, and in various businesses.

Numerous members of the family left home in Scotland and England and went out to Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, the United States, Canada, and South and Central America where they have raised families and spread the name quite widely.

There is, and has been for more then two hundred years, a large branch of the family living in Cornwall in the south of England, and it is one of their traditions that their common ancestor came down from Northumberland at some time in the early or middle 1700’s. This tradition has not been verified to date but is quite possible as several of the Northumberland lines of that time have been impossible to trace so far.

The spread of the family to different parts of the world is one of the interesting facets of this history. Nearly all of the branches in Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Canada, and my own here in the United Sates trace their lines back to Northumberland in the late 1600’s, and the Brazilian, Mexican and several of the United States branches trace their lines back to Cornwall in 1700’s and 1800’s. One of the American branches goes back to Northern Ireland in the late 1600’s although this particular line descends from one of the Scottish branches. Another American branch traces its lines back to Paisley in Scotland in 1797. Still another branch goes back to Yorkshire, England in 1732. Only two family lines have been traced directly back to the valley of the Rule in Roxburghshire, Scotland. One in Washington, DC traces back to 1843, and the other, living in Dunfermline, Scotland goes back to 1834.

At this point mention should be made of the German branch of the family who, in general, spell their names Ruhl. There are numbers of then living in the United States, although many of them, for one reason or another, have changed the spelling to Rule, which makes for complications when doing research on a family name. It would appear that members of this branch left the Palatinate section of Germany at this time of the religious troubles in the early 1700’s and came to the United States directly or by way of Holland and England. See Part V for coat of arms. A small book which covers, in part, this branch of the family has been written by the Rev. Walter Stuart Rule of Knoxville, Tennessee, and just lately, a very well done loose leaf booklet covering a sub-branch of this family has been prepared by Mrs. F. M. Osterhout of Winfield, Kansas.

The project of researching and assembling this genealogical information about the Scottish and English family of Rule has been undertaken because of a personal interest and pride a family which has provided a long line of worthy individuals who have, for the most part, and to the best of their respective abilities, paid for their room on earth by being of better then average service to their fellow men. Roofer, mason, teacher, minister, diplomat, military officer or business man, they all appear to have been well liked in their communities and looked up to as individuals. If my small effort to document this history of the family helps to establish these facts, it will have been well repaid.

I have been constantly amazed at the interest of many members of the family in this endeavor, and in the fact that quite a number of them have been collecting information about the family over the years. However, there are many others who seem to have very little information regarding their forebears, or who do not have any interest in such things. Therefore my heartfelt thanks go to the following members of the family for their help in this work.

· My wife Sarah Wendell Clark Rule without whose help this work would have been hopeless.

· The Rev. Leslie Rule Wilson of Geraldton, Western Australia who has compiled a beautiful volume on the Norham, Northumberland and Rule family and its descendents. The information, sketches and photographs contained in it have provided a world of data. I particularly wish to thank Leslie for his permission to use the contents of his volume.

· Sista Alice Edith Strom, of Melbourne, Australia whose memory for family history and anecdotes is outstanding.

· Keith Malcolm Rule Pyott of London, England whose detailed information, and support of my endeavors, has helped exceedingly.

· Lt. Col. Donald Gordon Rule and his cousin Reginald William Rule of Surrey and Kent in England for their information about the military and diplomatic branch of the family.

· Mildred Rule McLain of Quincy, Massachusetts, who, though her love of writing has provided me with so many contacts and so much general information.

· Gordon Fox Rule of Sao Paulo, Brazil for his invaluable help on this Cornwall branch of the family.

· La Reina Rule Hammond of Los Angeles, California, who has provided me with quite detailed information going back to, and beyond, the time of William the Conqueror.

· And the many other members of the family who have been willing and able to provide detailed information about their particular branches.

Finally, it must be said that a work of this kind will, in all probability, never be completed in one person’s lifetime, and I can only hope that someone in the next generation will have the interest and pride in the family of which he is a member, to try and to add to this collection of very interesting information about the family of Rule.

Richard Henry Rule

Fairfax, Virginia, USA

October 1964

A paper was presented to the Hawick Archaeological Society on the 20^th of March 1906 by Mr. Andrew Ross, Ross Herald entitled, “The Roules of Roule Water.” He closes with the following statement, “such is a brief and by no means exhaustive outlines of the Roule family down to the commencement of the sixteenth century. So slight is the information it yields regarding the individuals concerned that they appear but as shadows flitting before us, yet there is sufficient to show that the race must have been a highly gifted one which could produce from the resources of a slender border lairdship, men who for centuries, from generation to generation, took no mean share in the public life and their day.” “The Roules are of ancient date in Scotland and there are frequent references to the family in the early annals. Many generations were benefactors to the church as may be found by reference to the chartulaires of the great border monasteries.” “In the struggle for supremacy between the Bruce and the Balliol in the fourteenth century the Roules were in the cruel position so many other border families found themselves compelled to acknowledge one aspirant of the other, they became, as the struggle fluctuated, the spoilers or the spoiled. Some members of the family cast in their lot with Balliol and references to them will be found in the English sate papers.”