Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet (17 March 1746 – 5 June 1800) of
Churston Court in the parish of
Churston Ferrers
Churston Ferrers is an area and former civil parish, in the borough of Torbay, Devon, England, situated between the south coast towns of Paignton and Brixham. Today it is administered by local government as the Churston-with-Galmpton ward of th ...
, of nearby
Lupton in the parish of
Brixham, and of Prince Hall on
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...
, all in Devon, was an English judge.
Origins
Buller was born at
Downes House in the parish of
Crediton in Devon, a younger son of
James Buller (1717–1765), of Downes and of
King's Nympton Park, both in Devon and of
Morval in Cornwall, a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members ofte ...
for
Cornwall, by his second wife Lady Jane Bathurst, daughter of
Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst
Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst, (16 November 168416 September 1775), of Bathurst in the County of Sussex, known as The Lord Bathurst from 1712 to 1772, was a British Tory politician. Bathurst sat in the English and British House of Commons f ...
. As his elder brothers inherited the substantial family estates, Buller as a younger son was obliged to make his own fortune, which he achieved both from his brilliant legal career and from having married a wealthy heiress.
Career
Legal career
After an education at
The King's School, Ottery St Mary
The King's School is a secondary school and sixth form located in Ottery St Mary, Devon, England. It was established as a choir school by the bishop John Grandisson in 1335, but was replaced by a grammar school by Henry VIII in 1545. It became ...
in Devon, and at
Christ's Hospital, London, in February 1763 he entered the
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wa ...
as a pupil of
William Henry Ashurst,
special pleader
A special pleader was a historical legal occupation. The practitioner, or "special pleader" in English law specialised in drafting "pleadings", in modern terminology statements of case.
History
Up to the 19th century, there were many rules, techn ...
, and obtained his own certificate as special pleader in 1765. In Easter term 1772 he was
called to the bar
The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
and rose rapidly, becoming
King's Counsel
In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel ( post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...
on 24 November 1777. After being appointed
Puisne Justice of Chester in 1777 he was promoted, on 6 May 1778 aged just 32, to be a
puisne
Puisne (; from Old French ''puisné'', modern ''puîné'', "later born, younger" (and thence, "inferior") from late Latin ''post-'', "after", and ''natus'', "born") is a legal term of art obsolete in many jurisdictions and, when current, used mai ...
judge of the
King's Bench.
His conduct on the bench, however, was often the subject of severe criticism, and he was accused of being hasty and prejudiced. He has been the subject of controversy over time due to an alleged statement he made that ''"a husband could thrash his wife with impunity provided that he used a stick no bigger than his thumb"''. This claim was widely circulated and led to Buller being caricatured as "Judge Thumb" by James Gillray in 1782. Under the system of
coverture
Coverture (sometimes spelled couverture) was a legal doctrine in the English common law in which a married woman's legal existence was considered to be merged with that of her husband, so that she had no independent legal existence of her own. U ...
marriage, a couple became one
legal person
In law, a legal person is any person or 'thing' (less ambiguously, any legal entity) that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason for ...
, over which the husband had rights and responsibility; accordingly, crimes by him against her were not recognised except in the most extreme cases. If Buller did indeed make the ruling, it was merely a refinement of earlier precedent, as for example the death of a wife by beating with a
pestle
Mortar and pestle is a set of two simple tools used from the Stone Age to the present day to prepare ingredients or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder in the kitchen, laboratory, and pharmacy. The ''mortar'' () ...
had been ruled as murder, but only after consideration that "though a husband by law may correct, the pestle was no instrument for correction".
He was one of the three judges in the 1783 appeal hearing of the
''Zong'' massacre case. He also presided over an important trial in 1785 involving the validity of a
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
held by
Richard Arkwright
Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as t ...
the cotton manufacturer. The jury held the patent to be invalid because the specification was unclear.
Expert evidence
An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...
showed that Arkwright had claimed as his own inventions made by others. Arkwright had by that time established several cotton
spinning
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentional ...
mills, and continued to prosper despite losing the patent battle.
Buller was always the second judge in his court, although when
Lord Mansfield
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, PC, SL (2 March 170520 March 1793) was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. Born to Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth, Scotland, before moving to Lond ...
was absent through illness in the last two years of his life, Buller took the lead and in effect acted as
Lord Chief Justice
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...
. On Mansfield's death, the Prime Minister
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ir ...
having long deliberated, passed over Buller, considered by many to be the superior lawyer, and appointed Kenyon to top role. However, as additional recognition, Pitt made Buller a
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
of Lupton House in the
County of Devon on 13 January 1790. On 19 June 1794 Buller resigned from the King's Bench and took his place in the
Court of Common Pleas
A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against o ...
.
He was a guardian of Lady Anne Brydges (died 1836) daughter and sole heiress of
James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos
James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos PC (27 December 1731 – 29 September 1789), styled Viscount Wilton from birth until 1744 and Marquess of Carnarvon from 1744 to 1771, was a British peer and politician.
Background
Chandos was the onl ...
and was a trustee of the 1796
marriage settlement
A marriage settlement in England was a historic arrangement whereby, most commonly and in its simplest form, a trust of land or other assets was established jointly by the parents of a bride and bridegroom. The trustees were established as legal o ...
between her and Richard Temple, later 1st
Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Viscount Cobham is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain that was created in 1718. Owing to its special remainder, the title has passed through several families. Since 1889, it has been held by members of the Lyttelton family.
The barony a ...
.
Moorland improver
In 1790 or shortly before, Buller bought the
Ancient Tenement of Prince Hall on
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...
, Devon, from Christopher Gullet who had acquired it some ten years earlier and had already built new farm buildings on the old site. Buller greatly extended the buildings, converting the property into one of "Georgian opulence".
He was friendly towards his tenants and other workers on the moor, whom he invited to weekly religious services at Prince Hall.
He also
enclosed
Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
some 2,000 acres around Prince Hall, and set about improving the land. There was a strong belief amongst forward thinkers of the time that Dartmoor's poor
moorland
Moorland or moor is a type of habitat found in upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and montane grasslands and shrublands biomes, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils. Moorland, nowadays, generall ...
soil could be "improved" for agriculture. Robert Fraser in his 1794 book ''General View of the Agriculture of the County of Devon'' (one of the
General View of Agriculture county surveys series) promoted Buller's programme of fertilising the soil, improving the breeds of sheep and cattle and large scale planting of trees, as an example of best practice – even though he noted that almost all of the 40,000 larch and other conifers that Buller had planted had already died. The avenue of trees leading to the property has, however, survived to the present day.
While Buller was attempting to "improve" Dartmoor at Prince Hall,
Thomas Tyrwhitt
Thomas Tyrwhitt (; 27 March 173015 August 1786) was an English classical scholar and critic.
Life
He was born in London, where he also died. He was educated at Eton College and Queen's College, Oxford. He was elected a fellow of Merton Colle ...
was doing the same at nearby
Tor Royal.
Buller acquired other estates on Dartmoor, including Skerraton in the parish of
Dean Prior. He also built an inn, named the ''Saracen's Head'' after the Buller family's
crest, at
Two Bridges, on a site now occupied by the Two Bridges Hotel.
Marriage and children
In 1763, at the age of 17, he married a wealthy heiress, namely Susanna Yarde (1740–1810), only daughter and sole heiress of Francis Yarde (1704–1750) of
Ottery St Mary
Ottery St Mary, known as "Ottery", is a town and civil parish in the East Devon district of Devon, England, on the River Otter, about east of Exeter on the B3174. At the 2001 census, the parish, which includes the villages of Metcombe, Fai ...
in Devon, the fifth son of
Edward Yarde (1669–1735), of
Churston Court in the parish of
Churston Ferrers
Churston Ferrers is an area and former civil parish, in the borough of Torbay, Devon, England, situated between the south coast towns of Paignton and Brixham. Today it is administered by local government as the Churston-with-Galmpton ward of th ...
, a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members ofte ...
for
Totnes
Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-southwest of Torquay and abou ...
in Devon 1695–1698. Susanna was the niece and heiress of John Yarde (1702–1773) of Churston Court, which thus became Buller's residence until he purchased Lupton House, one mile to the south.
By his wife he had children including:
* Edward Buller, first-born son and
heir apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
, who predeceased his father without children and was buried in the cemetery of
St Andrew's Church, Holborn,
City of London, near
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...
.
*
Sir Francis Buller-Yarde-Buller, 2nd Baronet (1767–1833), second and eldest surviving son and heir, who in compliance with the will of his maternal great-uncle John Yarde (1702–1773) assumed the surname Yarde in lieu of his patronymic, but later by royal sign manual added the additional surname Buller. He was the father of:
**
John Yarde-Buller, 1st Baron Churston (1799–1871), eldest surviving son, who was raised to the
peerage
A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks.
Peerages include:
Australia
* Australian peers
Belgium
* Belgi ...
in 1858;
**
Sir Edward Manningham-Buller, 1st Baronet (1800–1882), second surviving son, created a
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
in 1866, whose descendant was created
Viscount Dilhorne in 1964.
[Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p. 360]
Death, burial & monument
In the late 1790s Buller was in poor health, suffering from frequent attacks of
gout
Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intensi ...
and other ailments. He died during the night of 4/5 June 1800 after suffering an acute breakdown in his health during a game of
piquet
Piquet (; ) is an early 16th-century plain-trick card game for two players that became France's national game. David Parlett calls it a "classic game of relatively great antiquity... still one of the most skill-rewarding card games for two" but ...
at his house in
Bedford Square in London, shortly before had intended to resign his legal position. He was buried in the churchyard of
St Andrew's Church, Holborn,
City of London, near
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...
.
[Hemery, p.462] A mural monument to him survives in the Yarde-Buller Chapel, north transept of St Mary's Church, Brixham, the parish church of Lupton House, inscribed in Latin as follows:
:''M(emoriae) S(acrum) Francisci Buller Baronetti per plus quam septemdecem annos Banci Regis deinde per sex annos Banci Communis Justiciarii viri memorabilis qui in causis discendis acumine et diligentia in indagando jure industria et in interpretando solertia nimini cessit. Natus in parochia Crediensi 28 die Martii 1746 obiit Londini 4 die Junii 1800 et sepultus est in caemeterio Divi Andrea prope Hospitium Grayense juxta reliquias Edwardi Buller filii primo-geniti''
which may be translated as:
:"Sacred to the memory of Francis Buller, Baronet, for more than seventeen years a Justice of the King's Bench, thereafter for six years of the Common Pleas, a memorable man who in cases to be decided ceded to no man in sharpness and diligence in researching the law and in industry and interpretation with skilfulness. He was born in the parish of Crediton on the 28th day of March 1746 he died in London on the 4th day of June 1800 and was buried in the cemetery of St Andrew's near Gray's Inn next to the remains of Edward Buller his first-born son".
Sculpted below in low relief is a sword of justice crossed by a beam of a set of scales of justice. At top is shown a shield of the Buller arms with
inescutcheon of pretence of Yarde (of 4 quarters) for his heiress wife Susanna Yarde.
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Buller, Francis
Justices of the King's Bench
1746 births
1800 deaths
Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain
British King's Counsel
People educated at Christ's Hospital
18th-century King's Counsel
People from Brixham