John Tunstall

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John Henry Tunstall (6 March 1853 - 18 February 1878) was a New Mexican rancher and prominent figure in the Lincoln County War.

Born in Dalston, a suburb of London, England, Tunstall emigrated to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 1872 where he spent his time working at Turner, Beeton & Tunstall--a store in which his father was a partner. Tunstall left Canada for the United States in February 1876. He spent six months investigating the possibility of becoming a sheep rancher in California, but decided instead to try New Mexico, where land was cheaper and more abundant. Soon after his arrival in Santa Fe he met a lawyer, Alexander McSween, who persuaded him that there were potentially big profits to be made in Lincoln County. Soon after arriving in Lincoln County, New Mexico, Tunstall went into business as a rancher and set up a mercantile store and bank close to the Murphy & Dolan mercantile and banking operation established a few years earlier by James Dolan, Lawrence Murphy and John H. Riley. Tunstall and McSween were supported by John Chisum, the owner of a large ranch and over 100,000 head of cattle.

Alarmed by Tunstall's plans, Murphy & Dolan attempted to put him out of business, harassing him legally and when that did not work, trying to goad Tunstall into a gunfight. Tunstall recruited half a dozen tough cowboys, one of whom was the boy who would later be known as Billy the Kid, to protect him while he tried to settle the dispute. On 18 February 1878, however, Tunstall was killed by William Morton, Jesse Evans and Tom Hill, apparently on the orders of James Dolan. This event ignited the Lincoln County War. Deeply affected by his murder, Billy the Kid became a member, and later leader of the Regulators, a group that supported Alexander McSween. He claimed that Tunstall "was the only man that ever treated me like I was a free-born and white", and swore: "I'll get every son-of-a-bitch who helped kill John if it's the last thing I do."

Note: John Tunstall's gun is located at the Royal Armouries, in Leeds, West Yorkshire (UK). Their website is here: http://www.royalarmouries.org/

[edit] Trivia

• Tunstall was portrayed in the 1988 film Young Guns by English actor Terence Stamp.

A biography of Tunstall and a history of the Lincoln County War is The Life and Death of John Henry Tunstall by Frederick Nolan published in 1965 by the University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque NM.

Friend of Billy the Kid