John Bullock

Colonel John Bullock (31 December 1731 – 28 December 1809) was a British politician and militia officer who represented the constituencies of Maldon, Steyning and Essex in the British House of Commons from 1754 to 1810. Born in Faulkbourne, Essex, he was a prominent member of the Bullock family whose long service in Parliament resulted in the title of father of the House being bestowed on him.

Early years

John Bullock was born on 13 December 1731 in Faulkbourne, Essex. He was the eldest surviving son of Josiah Bullock J.P. D.L. of Faulkbourne and Mincing Lane, London and Hannah Cooke, youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Cooke, Member of Parliament for Colchester and governor of the East India Company. Bullock was educated as a fellow commoner at Clare College, Cambridge and at Lincoln's Inn (1750). He succeeded to Faulkbourne Hall on the death of his father in 1752.

Political career

At the age of 23, he embarked on a parliamentary career that lasted 56 years and culminated in him becoming father of the house until his death.

His period in the house spanned the Seven Years’ War, the War of American Independence, the French Revolution and the earlier Napoleonic Wars. He sat as a fellow member with the Pitts, Burke, Fox and Sheridan. whose relative was Elizabeth Howland, Duchess of Bedford, wife of Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford. Both the colonel and the Duke of Bedford had their portraits painted in the early 1770s by Thomas Gainsborough. Colonel Bullock never made a speech in Parliament during his career.

Military service

Bullock was appointed an officer in the East Essex Militia, a battalion-sized unit of the British Militia, at the rank of colonel in 1759. He was the second in command of the unit when it was first mustered on 15 November 1759 and when it was mustered again on 19 April 1778 after the outbreak of the American War of Independence.

Faulkbourne

He took a keen interest in Faulkbourne Hall and undertook many improvements to the house and grounds in the 18th century. A drawing shows a Palladianisation of the west front, but the later work seems to have taken it back to – and extended – the gothic original look. He ordered fine tapestries from Aubusson in France and armorial porcelain from China. was a considerable heiress to large slum estates in Southwark of over 17 acres and containing 400 houses, he exhausted a large part of her fortune on Parliamentary life. She died in 1793 and they had no children. He left his estates on his death, in 1809, to his nephew, Jonathan Josiah Christopher Watson, son of his sister, Elizabeth who had married Jonathan Watson JP DL FRS of Ringhall in Suffolk. In 1810, Jonathan Josiah Christopher took the surname Bullock under the Royal sign-manual.

The death of the colonel without issue led to the first break in the regular family succession for more than 200 years, since John Bullock of Moulsham founded the Essex Branch of the family.

Gainsborough portrait In the early 1770s, a fine portrait was painted by Gainsborough showing the colonel in full uniform resting his left elbow on a pedestal which supports a classic urn. In his right hand, he holds his laced hat. By his side sits a large Newfoundland dog. In the background are trees and water.

The Gainsborough portrait has been at auction several times in the past 25 years: it made £1.2m in 1987, and then £2.65m in 2002, both times setting a world record for Gainsborough. Before the 1987 sale it had been in the same British collection for 90 years - for a long time it was on loan to the government, and hung at 10 Downing Street for two years.