Richard Bull, of Gloucester County

Biography

Extracted from GOODSPEED HISTORIES: New Jersey History and Genealogy. By Marfy Goodspeed. (December 8, 2013). “ Richard Bull, Surveyor.” < link >

Richard Bull was the son of Thomas and Sarah Bull of Pipe Hill, Staffordshire, England. … In deeds recorded in the 1690s, Sarah was usually identified as “Widow Bull.” In 1698, Richard Bull and his mother Sarah witnessed the will of Gilbert Wheeler of Bucks County. (Wheeler was one of the earliest purchasers of land in Hunterdon County.) Sarah Bull died soon after that year.

Like his siblings, Richard Bull inherited property in Gloucester and in Philadelphia. There are very few deeds or surveys recorded for him prior to 1701. By that time, several surveys had been made in the northern part of the Bowde Purchase, some of them probably by Richard Bull, as an employee of the West Jersey Proprietors.5

Richard Bull’s sister Sarah married Samuel Green. Probably soon after that, the couple left Gloucester and settled on land in the Adlord Bowde purchase. About the same time, John Reading, prominent gentleman and surveyor of Gloucester, also left for what was to become Hunterdon County. But Richard Bull decided to remain behind. He had a personal reason for staying—at just this time, about 1704-1708, Richard Bull married Sarah Hunt Harrison of Gloucester, daughter of William Hunt who died about 1689. William Hunt wrote his will in September 1688, naming daughters Sarah and Mary as administrators of his estate.

Sometime before 1688, Sarah Hunt was married to Samuel Harrison, a mariner of Gloucester. They had six children from about 1688 to about 1700. Harrison is particularly interesting because he went into partnership with John Reading to build a brewery in Gloucester. They agreed to hire one Anthony Blany to produce malt and beer at the brewery for seven years, but Blany was careless and allowed the brew house to catch fire. Not only was the brewery destroyed but also an adjacent house in which John Reading had kept the records for the town and county of Gloucester, including land records, which were all destroyed.9

In early 1704, Samuel Harrison died intestate and his widow Sarah was named administrator. Her husband’s inventory included “four negroes.” With six young children to raise, it is not surprising that she soon married again. However, she probably did not see much of her new husband, as Richard Bull had to spend a lot of time away from home, making surveys in Hunterdon County. Perhaps that explains why they had no children.

About October 1722, Richard Bull died intestate. He was only about 45 years old. An inventory was made of his estate on October 16, 1722 by Francis Jones, and sworn to by the widow Sarah acting as administrator. It amounted to £107.8.4 and included a negro servant, eight books, and surveying compass, along with bills due from Elias Fish, Richard Ualintine, Elias Hugg and John Pearce.14

5. I have previously written about the purchase of 30,000 acres by Adlord Bowde in “West New Jersey 1688 and Daniel Coxe.”
6. West Jersey Proprietors, Survey Book A p. 37; N.J. State Archives, Trenton.

Notes

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/209758636/sarah-green

With a historical note on the Stokes family of Burlington County, N.J.
Anne Evans Stokes, Samuel Evans Stokes, 1916 Note 12, pps. 65-66:

Ann Hinchman, first wife of John Hinchman 3d, and mother of Hannah Hinchman was the daughter of Samuel and Sarah Harrison, and widow of Jacob Clement.

Neither of Ann (Harrison-Clement) Hinchman's husbands left a will, and if we did not have the will of Ann's mother, Sarah, who after the death of Samuel Harrison married Richard Bull, we could not prove her parentage. The proof is as follows: -- William Hunt, of Gloucester County, dying in 1688, mentions in his will his daughter, Sarah Harrison, and her daughter, Ann Harrison. Her (Sarah's) husband was Samuel Harrison as we learn when letters of administration were granted her at his decease in 1703. Her own will, probated in 1744, demonstrates that she subsequently married someone named Bull (Recorded West Jersey Wills, Lib. 8, p. 190, Trenton), and we learn (Glo. Co. Wills, File 1719-1727) that her second husband was Richard Bull of Gloucester County, who died in 1722.

From one of the West Jersey deeds [Lib. D.D., p. 449] we learn that Ann Harrison married Jacob Clement. That she later married John Hinchman is demonstrated by the will of her mother, Sarah Bull (noted above) as the latter speaks of her grandchildren John, William and Elizabeth Hinchman, and her granddaughter Hannah Stokes. These four were beyond doubt the children of John Hinchman, and as Sarah Bull had only one daughter, these obviously must have been her children, otherwise, they could not have been grandchildren of Sarah Bull. Hence it follows that after the death of Jacob Clement, she married John Hinchman.

References

• GOODSPEED HISTORIES: New Jersey History and Genealogy. By Marfy Goodspeed. (December 8, 2013). “ Richard Bull, Surveyor.” < link >