CULLUM, Sir Dudley, 3rd Bt. (1657-1720), of Hawstead Place, Hawstead, Suff. and Hardwick House, nr. Bury St. Edmunds, Suff.

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

1702 - 1705

Family and Education

b. 17 Sept. 1657, 1st s. of Sir Thomas Cullum, 2nd Bt., of Hawstead Place and Hardwick House by Dudleia, da. of Sir Henry North, 1st Bt., of Mildenhall, Suff., coh. of her bro. Sir Henry North, 2nd Bt.  educ. Bury St. Edmunds g.s. by 1668; St. John's, Camb. 1675.  m. (1) 3 Sept. 1681, Anne (d. 1709), da. of John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, s.p.; (2) 12 June 1710, Anne, da. of James Wicks of Bury St. Edmunds, s.psuc. fa. as 3rd Bt. Oct. 1680.

Offices Held

Freeman, Ipswich 1714.1

Biography

Cullum’s grandfather, the younger son of a long-established Suffolk family, made his fortune as a draper in London, and purchased Hawstead and Hardwick in 1656. A ‘Presbyterian’ in City politics during the Civil War, he was one of the aldermen imprisoned in 1647–8 for opposition to the army, and subsequently removed from office; at the Restoration he was created a baronet. Cullum’s father stood unsuccessfully on the ‘Country’ interest at Bury St. Edmunds in the election to the first Exclusion Parliament. Cullum himself was assured while at Cambridge by his old schoolmaster of ‘the good signs you already give of being an honest and sober gentleman, such as may both support the honour of your family and promote also the good of your country’, but to begin with he had little taste for public life: he refused to serve when pricked as sheriff in 1689. Instead he devoted most of his time to horticulture and botany, pursuits in which John Evelyn was his mentor.2

Although he had many Tory connexions through his mother and first wife, including his first cousin Thomas Hanmer II*, Cullum followed his father’s politics and was returned as a Whig for Suffolk in 1702. He told on 17 Feb. in favour of a clause on behalf of Colonel Luke Lillingston to be added to the bill continuing the commission of inquiry into the debts of the army, navy and transports. On 17 Mar. he reported from the committee appointed to examine two ‘irreligious’ books, the Second Thoughts Concerning Human Soul and Vindication of Reason, by William Coward. Forecast in October 1704 as a likely opponent of the Tack, he did not vote for it on 28 Nov. He managed two private bills through the House in January and February 1705. Cullum was defeated twice in the 1705 election, when he again stood for Suffolk as a Whig, and was also put up at Bury St. Edmunds on the interest of Lord Hervey (John*). He dropped his candidature in a subsequent by-election for Bury, probably in favour of a nominee of Hervey, and thereafter retreated from politics to his gardens and greenhouses, where as ‘honest, innocent Sir Dudley Cullum’, he lived the rest of his life in rural retirement.3

Cullum died on 16 Sept. 1720 and was buried at Hawstead, having enjoyed the distinction of being the only member of his family to enter Parliament.

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

  • 1. G. G. Milner-Gibson-Cullum, Cullum Fam. 91-92; Muskett, Suff. Manorial Fams. i. 171; E. Anglian, n.s. iii. 217; Sir J. Cullum, Hist. Hawstead (1813), pp. 77, 184; G. R. Clarke, Ipswich, 83.
  • 2. Copinger, Suff. Manors, vii. 39–40; DNB; V. Pearl, London and Outbreak of Puritan Revol. 314–15; Cullum, 187–8.
  • 3. W. Suss. RO, Shillinglee mss Ac.454/1162, Thomas Palmer to Sir Edward Turnor*, 26 Feb. 1704–5; Camb. Univ. Lib. Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss, R. Short to Robert Walpole II*, 25 Oct. 1705; Hervey Letter Bks. ii. 83.