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Author: Bull, John

Biography:

BULL, John (1777-1852: ancestry.co.uk)

He was born on 10 Aug. 1777 and baptised on 25 Aug. at Cubley, Derbyshire, the seventh of at least nine children of John Bull and Elizabeth Goodall, who had married in 1771. Nothing is known of his early education but he proceeded to St. Edmund’s Hall, Oxford (matric. 1798, BA 1801, MA 1809). His entry in ACAD is muddled; his entry in CCEd is incomplete. Much of his life and career can, however, be reconstructed from other sources. The two works listed here place him at Orange Court, Downe, Kent in 1814 and at Clipston, Harborough, Norhamptonshire, in 1827. He was therefore probably the John Bull ordained deacon (1801) and priest (1802) who was appointed stipendiary curate at Downe, Kent, in 1810. He married Elizabeth Wrathall (1777-1837) on 2 July 1801 at Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. They may have had as many as fourteen children. It  seems likely that he was successively curate at Foot’s Cray, Downe, Leicester, and Clipston, with children born in all four locations. With such a large family he was in financial difficulty in 1832 and was awarded £25 by the Royal Literary Fund. His obituary states that he was also master of the grammar school and hospital at Clipston for many years before being appointed perpetual curate at St. John’s Walthamstow, Essex (now East London), 1847-52. He may not have performed any duties in Walthamstow and is listed in the 1851 census as “without cure of souls.” His first wife, Elizabeth died on 12 Nov. 1837 at Clipston. He then married Eliza Martha Goodall on 25 July 1839 at Leicester. There does not appear to be issue from the second marriage. He died on 27 June 1852, aged 74, at 1 Grantleyville, Larkhall Rise, Clapham, Surrey (now South London). In addition to the works listed here, he published Early Devotion (1816), A Catechism (1819), and Sermons (1824) while curate at Clipston. Several sons emigrated to Australia and have biographies of their own. (ancestry.co.uk 10 Apr. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 10 Apr. 2023; CCEd 10 Apr. 2023; RLF, 1/724; OJ 14 Nov. 1801; OUCH 1 July 1809; Northampton Mercury 21 Sept. 1816; Leicester Chronicle 27 July 1839; MH 2 Apr. 1847; GM Aug. 1852, 210) AA

 

Other Names:

  • J. Bull
 

Books written (2):

London: for the author by J. Hatchard, F. C. and J. Rivington, and L. B. Seeley, 1814
London/ Northampton/ Kettering/ Market Harborough: C. and J. Rivington/ J. Birdsall/ Dash and Son/ T. Abbott/ J. G. Brown, 1827