Sir John Bull (1672–1742) was a prominent businessman in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

trading with the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

, who served as

Sheriff of London Two sheriffs are elected annually for the City of London by the Liverymen of the City livery company, livery companies. Today's sheriffs have only nominal duties, but the historical officeholders had important judicial responsibilities. They have ...

Early life

Born about 1672, he was the youngest son of John Bull (1631–1715), a London businessman from

Newport, Isle of Wight Newport is the county town of the Isle of Wight, an island county off the south coast of England. The town is slightly north of the centre of the island, and is in the civil parish of Newport and Carisbrooke. It has a quay at the head of the nav ...

who was a shareholder in the

Royal Africa Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English mercantile (trading) company set up in 1660 by the royal Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the west coast of Africa. It was led by the Duke of York, who was the brother o ...

and his wife Sarah. His elder sister Elizabeth was the first wife of Lieutenant-General

William Tatton William Tatton (1659–1736) was a career soldier in the British Army who rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General. Career As a trusted associate of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough throughout the War of the Spanish Succession, in April ...

Career

Becoming a member of the

Levant Company The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired, ...

which controlled English trade with the

Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetian and the like may also refer to: * Venetian language, a Romance language s ...

and Ottoman empires, he was knighted on 27 October 1717 at

Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chie ...

by King George I and served as Sheriff of London in 1718. Dying and buried at Ongar, his will was proved in London on 10 April 1742.

Family

After a brief first marriage, on 14 December 1717 in London he married Elizabeth Turner (1696–1738), daughter of Richard Turner (1653–1725), a London barrister, and his wife Elizabeth Goldsborough (1652–1737), whose family had property at Chipping Ongar in Essex. The couple moved to the White House at Ongar where they had eleven children, although only three lived long enough to marry. His son,

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...

, was a member of parliament and noted art collector. Of his daughters, Dorothy married John Lenham while Kitty (1732–1805) married the Reverend Charles Smith (1729–1803), the rector of

West Stoke West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

in Sussex, who was brother of William Smith,

Treasurer of the Ordnance The Treasurer of the Ordnance was a subordinate of the Master-General of the Ordnance in the United Kingdom, the office being created in 1670. The office was abolished in 1836 and its duties merged with that of several others to form the office ...

and uncle of both the Venerable Charles Webber,

Archdeacon of Chichester The post of Archdeacon of Chichester was created in the 12th century, although the Diocese of Sussex was founded by St Wilfrid, the exiled Bishop of York, in AD 681. The original location of the see was in Selsey. The see was moved to Chichester, ...

, and the Reverend

James Webber James Webber (1772 – 3 September 1847) was an English churchman, Dean of Ripon from 1828 until his death. Webber was the son of Rev. William Webber, canon of Chichester Cathedral, and his wife Anne . He was educated at Westminster School and C ...

Dean of Ripon The Dean of Ripon is a senior cleric in the Church of England Diocese of Leeds. The dean is the head of the chapter at Ripon Cathedral – his predecessors were deans of the same church when it was previously the cathedral of the Diocese of Ripo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bull, Sir John 1672 births 1742 deaths Knights Bachelor Sheriffs of the City of London Levant Company Businesspeople from London Businesspeople awarded knighthoods People from Chipping Ongar