Thomas Turnbull was a resident of New Hanover and Bladen County, North Carolina. A justice of the peace for Bladen, in 1753 Turnbull presided over a freeholders' court which heard a case involving Cato, an enslaved man charged with attempted murder. In an undated petition, Turnbull joined others in asking royal governor Arthur Dobbs for aid in controlling an outbreak of disease that was then decimating cattle, threatening both beef and leather production.