Andrew Turnbull and the 
New Smyrna Colony

During the third quarter of the 18^th Century, what is now southeastern Volusia County was the site of one of the most ambitious attempts by the British to colonize the New World. It was here, in 1768, that Scottish physician Dr. Andrew Turnbull and 1,255 colonists founded what eventually became the present-day city of New Smyrna Beach. In terms of sheer numbers of colonists, New Smyrna rivaled the original Jamestown colony, established over a century and a half earlier in Virginia. It was certainly one of the grandest agricultural enterprises undertaken during the British occupation of East Florida. But the New Smyrna colony also is noteworthy for the magnitude of its failure, abandoned as it was after only nine years.

Until recently, interest in Turnbull's colony resided primarily with historians and a handful of dedicated  vocational archaeologists. But recent research has changed all that. Through surveys and excavation, archaeologists have begun to systematically piece together the remains of 18^th Century New Smyrna.

 

 

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