William L. Bull

William Lanman Bull Sr. (August 23, 1844 – January 2, 1914) was an American banker who served as president of the New York Stock Exchange.

Early life Bull was born on August 23, 1844, in New York City. Among his siblings were Elizabeth Atwater Bull (wife of merchant Augustus Oscar van Lennep), Frederic Bull, and Anna Chester Bull.

His paternal grandparents were Elizabeth (née Atwater) Bull and Jireh Bull (a descendant of Rhode Island Governor Henry Bull) and his maternal grandparents were Peter Lanman and Abigail (née Trumbull) Lanman (a sister of U.S. Representative and Connecticut governor Joseph Trumbull). Through his mother, he was a first cousin of scholar Charles Rockwell Lanman. and served two terms until he was succeeded by Watson B. Dickerman in 1890.

He retired from business in 1908.

Personal life On February 15, 1871, Bull was married to Sara Newton "Tasie" Worthington. Tasie was the daughter of prominent businessman and inventor Henry Rossiter Worthington and Sara Jane (née Newton) Worthington (a daughter of Admiral Newtown of the U.S. Navy). who married his second cousin, Mary Helen Robinson in 1895. They divorced on December 2, 1926, and six days later he married Susan Fish Dresser (1890–1929), daughter of D. LeRoy Dresser and niece of Edith Stuyvesant Gerry. After her death, he married Corinne (née Howell) Strange (1880–1962), a widow of Albert Bruton Strange, in 1938. who married Maud Maria Livingston (1875–1962), a daughter of Robert Cambridge Livingston and Maria (née Whitney) Livingston, in 1904. Her niece, Phyllis Livingston Potter, was the wife of Fred Astaire. who married Matilda E. Heppenheimer, a daughter of Otto Heppenheimer, in 1904.

He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Society of Mayflower Descendants, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New-York Historical Society, the Sons of the American Revolution, the New York Zoological Society. He was affiliated with the Century Association, Grolier Club, Union Club, Metropolitan Club, Republican Club, Ardsley Club, Church Club, City Club, Midday Club, Alpha Delta Phi, Manhattan Society, and the Phi Beta Kappa honorary fraternity. After a funeral at Grace Church, he was buried in the family vault in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.