John Wrathall Bull (23 June 1804 – 21 September 1886) was a settler, inventor and author in the early days of colonial

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

.H. J. Finnis (1966)
''Bull, John Wrathall (1804-1886)''
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History

Early life and emigration

Born in

St Paul's Cray St Paul's Cray is an area of South East London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley in Greater London. Prior to 1965 it was within the historic county of Kent. It is located south of Sidcup and north of Orpington. The area The vill ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England, Bull was a dairy farmer in Cheshire and

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

, before applying as a farmer and shepherd for free passage to the new colony of South Australia. In May 1838, Bull arrived in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

aboard ''Canton'' with his wife and two infant sons. He acted as an agent for absentee landholders in South Australia and farmed in the Mount Barker and

Rapid Bay Rapid Bay is a locality that includes a small seaside town and bay on the west coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia. It lies within the District Council of Yankalilla and its township is approximately 100 km south of the stat ...

districts. In 1852, he visited the Victorian

goldfields Goldfield or Goldfields may refer to: Places * Goldfield, Arizona, the former name of Youngberg, Arizona, a populated place in the United States * Goldfield, Colorado, a community in the United States * Goldfield, Iowa, a city in the United State ...

but returned to South Australia the following year.

Invention

Bull was known for his creation of the agricultural stripping machine which he developed but was controversially beaten to the title of the inventor by

John Ridley John Ridley IV (born 1965) is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for '' 12 Years a Slave'', for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the a ...

. The controversy was revived in 1875, when the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

proposed to establish a "Ridley" chair of agriculture. Bull successful petitioned parliament in 1880 for a grant of recognition of his invention and after a long inquiry, was given £250 in 1882 "for services in improving agricultural machinery". Later research has supported Ridley's claim.

Military service

Also involved in South Australia's

colonial militia Colonial troops or colonial army refers to various military units recruited from, or used as garrison troops in, colonial territories. Colonial background Such colonies may lie overseas or in areas dominated by neighbouring land powers such ...

, Bull was made lieutenant in command of the companies at

Mitcham Mitcham is an area within the London Borough of Merton in South London, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross. Originally a village in the county of Surrey, today it is mainly a residential suburb, and includes Mitcham Common. It h ...

and

Glen Osmond Glen Osmond is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Burnside which is in the foothills of the Adelaide Hills. It is well known for the road intersection on the western side of the suburb, where the South Eastern Freeway (National ...

Authorship

Bull's major contribution to the history of colonial South Australia was the publication of his '' Early Experiences of Colonial Life in South Australia'' (Adelaide, 1878), a series of more-or-less coherent reminiscences originally published in serial form over eight months in '' The South Australian Chronicle and Weekly Mail'', the earliest installments having first appeared in the associated daily '' The Advertiser''. Revised and enlarged with more of the same, the work was republished in Adelaide and London in 1884.

Death

Bull died at College Park on 21 September 1886 and was survived by two of his ten children.

Family

Three children of Rev. J. Bull ( – ) of Northamptonshire emigrated to South Australia aboard ''Canton'', arriving in May 1838: *John Wrathall Bull (23 June 1804 – 21 September 1886) married (Mary) Brant Bowyer (c. 1815 – 25 February 1882). Among their children were: :*John Bowyer Bull (1835 – 21 May 1907) married Margaret Ellen Carey ( – ) in 1868; Annie Payne ( – ) in 1883. He was an explorer of Streaky Bay ::*Ethel Victoria Bull (14 June 1884 – 11 November 1975) married Franz "Frank" Koch (1877 – 7 February 1955) in Broken Hill on 17 February 1910. He was a cartoonist for

The Gadfly ''The Gadfly'' is a novel by Irish-born British writer Ethel Voynich, published in 1897 (United States, June; Great Britain, September of the same year), set in 1840s Italy under the dominance of Austria, a time of tumultuous revolt and upris ...

and elsewhere. They had a son Franz Bowyer Koch (1911–1940) :*Robert Peel Bull (1837 – 1913) :*Lucy Lakin Bull (30 September 1844 – 27 September 1939), a prominent defender of her father's claims as an inventor :*Fanny Yatala Bull ( – 26 August 1929) *Lucy Bull (c. 1819 – 16 September 1887) married

Thomas Hudson Beare Sir Thomas Hudson Beare FRSE RSSA (30 June 1859 – 10 June 1940) was an eminent British engineer. He was successively Professor of Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, at University College, London (where he was a colleague of ...

(c. 1798 – 7 November 1861) on 24 October 1840. He had five children by his first wife Lucy Ann née Loose (c. 1803 – 3 September 1837). Lucy and Thomas had another five children to reach adulthood, most notably the engineering academic

. *Joseph Bull ( – 10 January 1857) married Jane Rundle (c. 1822 – 13 May 1908) around 1840 and had five children. He was a pharmacist in Strathalbyn; committed suicide by taking morphine.

References

External links

Early Experiences of Life in South Australia
a
The University of Adelaide Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bull, John Wrathall 1804 births 1886 deaths 19th-century Australian inventors Settlers of South Australia Australian memoirists Burials at North Road Cemetery 19th-century memoirists