Bulleid News No. 80 5th May 2014

You wait and wait for the proverbial London bus and then, suddenly, four turn up at once. Family

history is similar – no activity for weeks or months even, then it bursts into life, like spring.

Appropriately, it is spring in the northern hemisphere and family history has sprung to life:

- Sue Sanders has sent an item for this newsletter

- Liz Gross has visited the UK from Maryland, USA

- Bernard Everett and I have scoured the Bulleid collection of documents etc. at the Somerset

Heritage Centre in Taunton

- The architect’s drawing for a stained glass window in St Peter’s church, North Tawton, has

been presented to the Vicar

- Nick Bulleid is on his way from Australia

- Kevin and Alison Kelleher are also coming to England from Australia

- Faith Stephenson has sent photos of her grandparents

- Alan Richards sent from Canada an extract of the 1901 Census regarding James and Ellen

Bullied and family

Read on…

Have you got some keep sakes from a member of your family that served in WW1?

By Sue Sanders Sorting through family items after the death of my Mum, I came across a few items relating to my

grandfather having served in WW1.

Samuel’s war medals and uniform badges were tucked away in an old tin. What I discovered to be his

ID tag was in a biscuit tin of odd bits and bobs (you know the tins, the ones where anything found

that may one day be needed were tossed inside, probably never to see the light of day again). The

thought of this tag hanging round his neck seemed more poignant than the medals.

My granddad (Samuel Percy Davey) was born 6th November 1887 at Neopardy, Yeoford, Crediton,

Devon. Samuel married Elizabeth Bulled (daughter of Henry and Priscilla Bulled) on the 12th

September 1914. Samuel’s occupation was a farm labourer/carter.

Granddad died when I was very young so I never got the chance to find out about his time in the army.

Other items found were a brass

match box holder with his name

and army number engraved on it.

SILK POSTCARDS FROM WW1.

During WW1 silk postcards and handkerchiefs were bought as souvenirs by soldiers who were serving

on the Western Front.

Local French and Belgian women embroidered the different motifs onto strips of silk mesh which

were sent to factories for cutting and mounting on postcards. There were two kinds of cards, one was a

piece of embroidered silk mounted onto a card and the other was two pieces of silk sewn and mounted

to form a pocket to contain a message or a silk handkerchief. This must have helped them financially

support their families in these difficult times. Subjects ranged from military regiments, hearts and

flowers, badges, Christmas greetings etc.

Below is an example of one of the post cards sent home to Lizzie, Samuel’s wife.

It may not seem much put here on paper but it’s a part of history brought one step closer to my family.

Bullhead farm, Iddesleigh, Devon

When we had a family gathering in Devon in 2008, there was a minibus tour of farms and churches

associated with Bulleids over the centuries, including Bullhead farm from which the family name

derives. The farm has an outbuilding that is thought to date from about 1450 and was the original

dwelling for both family and livestock. It was replaced at some stage by a more comfortable farmhouse

and was then used as a barn. The present owners of Bullhead, Mike and Shirley Cox, decided to

renovate it a few years ago as a holiday let.

Liz and Grant Gross came from their home in Maryland, USA, to the gathering in 2008, saw the 1450

Barn, as it is now known, and Liz vowed to stay there eventually. She and Grant rented it with friends,

also from the States, very recently and kindly invited yours truly, Bernard Everett and our wives to

join them for drinks one evening. The renovation has been done brilliantly (see

http://www.holidaycottages.co.uk/devon/mid-and-east-devon/the-1450-barn ) with some of the very

old wooden beams retained. Others had to be replaced by expert craftsmen. My only disappointment

was not to feel the presence of ancestors who lived there long ago.

Bullhead is still a working farm of 200 acres with cattle, sheep, goats, Shetland ponies and a children’s

corner with small animals. Mike and Shirley have a young family and are very welcoming. If you fancy

trying your hand at farming on what was Bulleid land in the 13th and 14th centuries, you will be very

welcome. Alternatively, you could laze on the patio or in the hot tub on a summer’s evening with a

bottle of chilled wine, a pasty and tangy local cheese from North Tawton. Have a deep sleep in the

dark Devon countryside and wake to the sound of the cows mooing.

The Taunton Collection

When we were at the gathering in Devon in 2008, Bernard Everett and I agreed that one day we would

visit the record offices in Taunton and Exeter to examine the Bulleid documents and memorabilia

deposited there after Jack Bulleid’s death in 2002. We used Liz Gross’s visit as the excuse to get this

item off our bucket list, although we decided to give Exeter a miss as the Taunton collection seemed

larger and more interesting.

Bernard traces his ancestry back to the Glastonbury Bulleids who gave rise, inter alia, to the extensive

family branch in Victoria, Australia. James Bulleid (1772-1811) and his wife Priscilla occupied the

Crown Inn in Glastonbury for a while. It is a 16th century coaching inn that has now become a haven

for backpackers who stay for short or long periods.

John George Lawrence Bulleid (1826-1902) was a solicitor who became mayor of Glastonbury seven

times and was the father of Dr Arthur Bulleid, our first family historian.

Bernard and I spent two days at the Somerset Heritage Centre, a modern, purpose-built building on

the outskirts of Taunton where the staff are very helpful and friendly. Entrance is free and there is no

charge to call up records, but it does cost £5 a day if you want to photograph any of them. A fiver

turned out to be a bargain as I almost wore my smartphone out taking photos.

We were amazed at the extent of the collection and that so much material had survived for so long.

Bernard called for the deeds of the Crown Inn from the 18th century, written on vellum, some hardly

legible. I started with the family Pedigree drawn up by Dr Arthur on linen-backed parchment

measuring about 4’6” x 3’ and clearly and beautifully written in ink. His last entry appears to have

been in 1908. Additions were made in pencil by his cousin John Field (‘Jack’) Bulleid, who took over

the rôle of family historian. Arthur died in 1951 before Jack could arrange to meet him, but much of

Arthur’s collection was handed down to Jack, probably by Arthur’s daughter, Armynell, who also took

a keen interest in the family history.

I read, years ago, Jack’s account of what he called ‘Mary Field’s Prayer Book’ dating from 1754. The

book caused Jack and Armynell a great deal of work for years as it seemed to cut the Glastonbury

Bulleids off from the main tree. Eventually, to their great relief, they discovered that it had not been

Mary Field’s book, but had been given to Mary Radmore (Arthur and Armynell’s gt gt grandmother),

possibly as a 21st birthday present, two years before her marriage to John Bulleid (1736-1819). It was a

magical moment to receive this book from the strongroom and examine the inscriptions, one of which

admonishes one James Hammett to mend his ways and keep away from wanton women!

The collection contains dozens of letters written by Arthur to his fiancée, Annie Austin, before their

marriage in 1900 and some soon after. There are letters from his mother, Christiana, and others from

Arthur to his parents from Hurst College in Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex. They are full of fascinating

detail about family life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The letters are augmented by a large collection of family photographs, mainly taken in the studio, but

others less formal: a charade ‘the evening before Gertie’s wedding’ (Arthur’s sister, Mary Gertrude

Bulleid) and other family occasions. The family was also artistic and the collection includes Arthur’s

scrapbook with many sketches by him and his brothers, Howard and Lawrence.

Miscellaneous items include Arthur’s diary of a visit to Australia with his family in 1933, wills, other

family trees and one that spooked me when I opened it: a very small envelope with a black border, the

contents of which turned out to be a large lock of dark hair from a long-dead and unnamed lady.

If you can get to Taunton, I strongly recommend spending two or three days examining this

fascinating collection that has miraculously survived for so long. The Centre is on a new industrial

estate with no eating places nearby, but a sandwich van visits daily at 10.30 and 1.15; the hot pasties

are to die for, just like mother used to make!

St Peter’s Church, North Tawton

John Bulleid (1851-1910) was only 10 years old when his mother, Elizabeth, died. The family lived in

North Tawton where the father was a maltster and brewer. John went to live with his mother’s sister,

Jane Durant, before joining his elder brother, William, who was living with Jane’s brother, Samuel

Lee, in Teignmouth. Samuel had a successful drapery store there and the brothers learned the

business before decided to set sail for New Zealand. John acquired a store in Oamaru, 70 miles north

of Dunedin, then the country’s largest city. He prospered to such an extent that he was able to build

the largest single storey, timber-framed house on the south island and spend four years touring

Europe with his family acquiring furnishings and fittings for the house (see

http://www.penybryn.co.nz/ for details).

Jane Durant and her husband had died by 1900 when their sons proposed installing a stained glass

window in St Peter’s church, North Tawton, where they had worshipped. John Bulleid had fond

memories of being brought up by the Durants after the trauma of his mother’s death and willingly

agreed to contribute to the cost of the window. The architect’s design was probably sent to John in

Oamaru and handed down the family until it came into the possession of Vic Bulleid, John’s grandson.

In 2009, when I visited Vic in Dunedin, he asked me to deliver the drawing to the Vicar of St Peter’s. It

lay at home for more than five years as I had no other reason to visit the West Country until Liz Gross

decided to rent the 1450 Barn on Bullhead farm. A meeting at the church was arranged with the Rev’d

Nick Weldon, when I presented the drawing to him, together with a press cutting dated 1899

concerning the restoration of the church. Nick was most grateful and will have the drawing properly

framed for display inside the church

Bulleid Web

- Nick Bulleid, our Master of Wine in Australia, will soon be in the UK en-route to a conference

in Italy. Prior to taking up oenology, Nick was an oceanographer which, by coincidence, was

also Liz Gross’s profession. Although they knew of each other, they have never met and,

unfortunately, will not be able to do so on this occasion even though both will be in England at

the same time.

- Kevin and Alison Kelleher have left home in Melbourne for another trip to the UK where they

will meet up with daughter Michelle. Working together, Kevin and Alison compiled the history

of the Bulleid family in Victoria, Australia, which was started when James John Bulleid

arrived from Bristol, England, in 1849. He was regarded as a ‘bit of a card’ having left his wife

behind in Bristol before marrying two women in Australia. On the first occasion, he declared

that he was a widower and on the second that he was a bachelor.

- By coincidence, Faith Stephenson who lives in England has kindly sent in two photographs of

her grandparents, Geoffrey and Thelma Bulleid, who brought her up in Australia. Geoffrey

was a descendant of the infamous James John Bulleid mentioned above.

Geoffrey & Thelma’s Wedding 1949

Best wishes to everyone and please don’t leave it too long before sending me items for the next

newsletter.

Geoff