BULLOCK, John (c.1671-1740), of Dynes Hall, Great Maplestead, Essex

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

14 Mar. 1699 - 1700

Family and Education

b. c.1671, 5th but 2nd surv. s. of Edward Bullock of Faulkbourne Hall and bro. of Edward Bullock*.  educ. Halstead sch.; Peterhouse, Camb. adm. 27 Mar. 1690, aged 18; I. Temple 1687.  m. (1) Rachel, da. and coh. of Sir Mark Guyon, wid. of Thomas Guyon, 1s. d.v.p. 1da.; (2) Hannah-Maria, da. and coh. of Samuel Keck, master in Chancery, s.p.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Colchester 1698, Maldon 1699.2

Biography

Bullock had much in common, both personally and politically, with his elder brother Edward. Both had married daughters of Sir Mark Guyon, and although the manor at Great Maplestead was not part of the inheritance of John’s wife, Edward allowed them to live in the property, conveying it to them by his will in 1705. It was probably owing to the influence of his brother and the Child family of Wanstead (into which his brother had married) that Bullock was elected for Maldon at a by-election in 1699, though Sir John Bramston† condescendingly suggested that he was chosen because the gentry at that time ‘had nobody that cared to be in the House, but he, writing a civil letter, submitting to the freemen, and offering to join with them in any other choice, wrought so on our good nature that we fixed on him’. Either he or his brother presented a bill to the Commons on 5 Feb. 1700 for suspending the bounty money given on the exportation of corn; and, no doubt influenced by the connexion with the Childs, Bullock was marked as being of the Old East India Company’s interest at the beginning of that year. His memorial inscription claimed that, having sat once as an MP, ‘he always afterward declined’ to stand for election, though it was in fact reported just before Parliament was dissolved in December 1700 that he would ‘not quit his intent of standing for Maldon for any man’, and that he had joined with William Fytche*. Bullock must indeed have pressed for re-election, since on 9 Jan. 1701 it was reported that he had been ‘left out’ because of his links with the Old Company, and this defeat appears to have put an end to his parliamentary ambitions. Although he inherited Dynes Hall from his brother, he spent the latter part of his life at Clapham in Surrey, where he died sometime in 1740. Since his son John had predeceased him his estates passed to his daughter Rachel, who subsequently sold the manor.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Mark Knights

Notes

  • 1. Burke, Commoners, ii. 622; L. C. Bullock, Mem. Fam. Bullock (1905), p. 34; info. from Dr D. F. Lemmings.
  • 2. Oath Bk. of Colchester ed. Benham, 232; Essex RO, Maldon bor. recs. sessions bk. D/B3/1/24, f. 108.
  • 3. Bramston Autobiog. (Cam. Soc. xxxii), 406; Bullock, 34, 36; Essex RO, Barrett-Lennard mss D/DL C48, C. Clarke to Dacre Barrett, 5 Dec. [1700]; Bodl. Ballard 6, f. 35.