Difference between revisions of "William Bull II"
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==History== | ==History== | ||
| − | More extensively educated than most Americans of his generation, William Bull briefly attended Westminster school in London (1723) before continuing his study of Greek, Latin, and science with a Leiden-educated tutor in Carolina. Bull himself enrolled at Leiden in 1731, studying with the Dutch botanist and physician Herman Boerhave (1668-1738) and becoming, in 1735, the first native-born American to graduate with a Doctor of Medicine degree from the university. <ref> Meroney, 1991, 16-17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZDU4XXDA view on Zotero]; James Raven, ''London Booksellers and American Customers: Transatlantic Literary Community and the Charleston Library Society, 1748-1811'' (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 2002), 172, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/V2XH7UDP view on Zotero]. </ref> On his return to America, he assembled a substantial personal library of books on botany and natural history. He also corresponded with the English botanist and plant and seed merchant [[Peter Collinson]], to whom he sent rare plant specimens, and with [[Thomamas Penn]], who was pursuing the study of natural history in Philadelphia.<ref> Meroney, 1991, 52, [[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZDU4XXDA view on Zotero]. </ref> When the Scottish physician and budding naturalist Dr. [[Alexander Garden]] arrived in Charleston in 1752, Bull lent him several foundational botanical studies, including [[Carolus Linnaeus]]'s ''Fundamenta Botanica'' (1736) and ''Classes plantarum'' (1738), and John Clayton’s ''Flora Virginica'' (1739). Bull also helped familiarize [[Alexander Garden|Garden]] with the native plants of South Carolina and provided him with a letter of introduction to [[ | + | More extensively educated than most Americans of his generation, William Bull briefly attended Westminster school in London (1723) before continuing his study of Greek, Latin, and science with a Leiden-educated tutor in Carolina. Bull himself enrolled at Leiden in 1731, studying with the Dutch botanist and physician Herman Boerhave (1668-1738) and becoming, in 1735, the first native-born American to graduate with a Doctor of Medicine degree from the university. <ref> Meroney, 1991, 16-17, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZDU4XXDA view on Zotero]; James Raven, ''London Booksellers and American Customers: Transatlantic Literary Community and the Charleston Library Society, 1748-1811'' (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 2002), 172, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/V2XH7UDP view on Zotero]. </ref> On his return to America, he assembled a substantial personal library of books on botany and natural history. He also corresponded with the English botanist and plant and seed merchant [[Peter Collinson]], to whom he sent rare plant specimens, and with [[Thomamas Penn]], who was pursuing the study of natural history in Philadelphia.<ref> Meroney, 1991, 52, [[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZDU4XXDA view on Zotero]. </ref> When the Scottish physician and budding naturalist Dr. [[Alexander Garden]] arrived in Charleston in 1752, Bull lent him several foundational botanical studies, including [[Carolus Linnaeus]]'s ''Fundamenta Botanica'' (1736) and ''Classes plantarum'' (1738), and John Clayton’s ''Flora Virginica'' (1739). Bull also helped familiarize [[Alexander Garden|Garden]] with the native plants of South Carolina and provided him with a letter of introduction to [[Cadwallader Colden]], a fellow botanical enthusiast in New York whom Bull had met the previous year. <ref> Edmund Berkeley and Dorothy Smith Berkeley, ''Dr. Alexander Garden of Charles Town'' (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1969), 33, 35, 53, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZFR499TP view on Zotero]; Raven, 2002, 73, 223, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/V2XH7UDP view on Zotero]; Meroney, 1991, 52, 56, [[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZDU4XXDA view on Zotero].</ref> Bull served as president of the Charles Town Library Society, a group notable for its enthusiasm for natural history as well as its extravagant purchases of rare and luxurious botanical folios. <ref> Raven, 2002, 73, 169-70,[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/V2XH7UDP view on Zotero]. </ref> In 1773 Bull proposed the formation of a special Library committee "for collecting materials for promoting a Natural History of this Province," which resulted in the establishment of the Charleston Museum, one of the earliest public museums in America. <ref> Albert E. Sanders and William Dewey Anderson, Jr., ''Natural History Investigations in South Carolina: From Colonial Times to the Present'' (Columbia, S. C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1999), 18-19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JPZGUUSQ view on Zotero]. </ref> Bull also indulged his interest in plants and gardens at [[Ashley Hall]], where he laid out formal gardens in 1770. |
Revision as of 19:02, May 4, 2015
William Bull II (1710-1791) was a prominent planter and politician in Charleston, South Carolina, as well as an amateur botanist. He laid out formal gardens at his family's plantation, Ashley Hall.
History
More extensively educated than most Americans of his generation, William Bull briefly attended Westminster school in London (1723) before continuing his study of Greek, Latin, and science with a Leiden-educated tutor in Carolina. Bull himself enrolled at Leiden in 1731, studying with the Dutch botanist and physician Herman Boerhave (1668-1738) and becoming, in 1735, the first native-born American to graduate with a Doctor of Medicine degree from the university. [1] On his return to America, he assembled a substantial personal library of books on botany and natural history. He also corresponded with the English botanist and plant and seed merchant Peter Collinson, to whom he sent rare plant specimens, and with Thomamas Penn, who was pursuing the study of natural history in Philadelphia.[2] When the Scottish physician and budding naturalist Dr. Alexander Garden arrived in Charleston in 1752, Bull lent him several foundational botanical studies, including Carolus Linnaeus's Fundamenta Botanica (1736) and Classes plantarum (1738), and John Clayton’s Flora Virginica (1739). Bull also helped familiarize Garden with the native plants of South Carolina and provided him with a letter of introduction to Cadwallader Colden, a fellow botanical enthusiast in New York whom Bull had met the previous year. [3] Bull served as president of the Charles Town Library Society, a group notable for its enthusiasm for natural history as well as its extravagant purchases of rare and luxurious botanical folios. [4] In 1773 Bull proposed the formation of a special Library committee "for collecting materials for promoting a Natural History of this Province," which resulted in the establishment of the Charleston Museum, one of the earliest public museums in America. [5] Bull also indulged his interest in plants and gardens at Ashley Hall, where he laid out formal gardens in 1770.
In addition to serving as lieutenant-governor of South Carolina from 1759 to 1775, Bull was acting governor on five separate occasions during that period. An ardent Loyalist, he fled to England in 1777 following the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, and was still there two years later when rampaging British troops "plundered and greatly damaged" his plantation at Ashley Hall, destroying a fish dam, tossing his private papers into the garden, and smashing china and glass. The greatest loss may have been Bull's library, which he reported "was scattered and mostly carried away."[6] Bull returned to America in February 1781, but when British troops evacuated Charleston in December of the following year, he accompanied them back to England, leaving John Julius Pringle to manage his affairs. [7] Bull died in London in 1791 and the following year his wife, Hannah Beale Bull wrote to Carolina, instructing her late husband's attorney and loyal friend, Nathaniel Russell, to erect a marble obelisk honoring his memory on the grounds of Ashley Hall. The monument bears a portrait of the governor in relief and a commemorative plaque with a lengthy inscription reading in part: "This obelisk was erected, sacred to his virtues and her grief, with duty and affection by his disconsolate widow."[8] [Fig. 1]
--Robyn Asleson
Texts
- Fraser, Charles, Reminiscences of Charleston, 1853 (1854: 68) [9]
- "[William Bull], the first Governor, had entertained Catesby, the celebrated naturalist, at the family seat, at Ashley river, where there is now a majestic avenue of oaks, said to have been planted by his hand."
Images
Charles Fraser, Monument of Lt. Gov. Bull, 1803.
References
South Carolina Department of Archives and History
Alfred O. Halsey Map Preservation Research Project, Preservation Society of Charleston
Library of Congress Name Authority File
Notes
- ↑ Meroney, 1991, 16-17, view on Zotero; James Raven, London Booksellers and American Customers: Transatlantic Literary Community and the Charleston Library Society, 1748-1811 (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 2002), 172, view on Zotero.
- ↑ Meroney, 1991, 52, [view on Zotero.
- ↑ Edmund Berkeley and Dorothy Smith Berkeley, Dr. Alexander Garden of Charles Town (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1969), 33, 35, 53, view on Zotero; Raven, 2002, 73, 223, view on Zotero; Meroney, 1991, 52, 56, [view on Zotero.
- ↑ Raven, 2002, 73, 169-70,view on Zotero.
- ↑ Albert E. Sanders and William Dewey Anderson, Jr., Natural History Investigations in South Carolina: From Colonial Times to the Present (Columbia, S. C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1999), 18-19, view on Zotero.
- ↑ Bull, 1952: 63, view on Zotero; Stephen Conway, A Short History of the American Revolutionary War (New York: I. B. Tauris, 2013), 126, view on Zotero.
- ↑ Meroney, 1991, 166-67, view on Zotero.
- ↑ Meroney, 1991, 184 and passim for Bull's relationship with Russell, view on Zotero; Bull, 1952: 66, view on Zotero.
- ↑ Charles Fraser, Reminiscences of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.: J. Russell, 1854), view on Zotero.
