Pinterest Board

 
I have recently become a member of Pinterest and started a John "Mad Jack" Fuller board.
See: http://pinterest.com/ziggypinkles/john-mad-jack-fuller/

Many images from my website had already been "pinned" by other users and I have added some myself.
As always, I strive for accuarcy and greatly appreciate people who contact me to help in this regard.

Pinterest Corrections:

• John Fuller was a Georgian Squire - not Victorian as one Pinterest user states. Queen Victoria's reign began in 1837, three years after Fuller's death. During his lifetime Britain's ruling monarchs were - George II (11 June 1727 – 25 October 1760); George III (25 October 1760 – 29 January 1820); George IV (1820 – 26 June 1830, Prince Regent since 1811); William IV (26 June 1830 – 20 June 1837).
• Britain Express eroneously labelled photos of the tower as "The Observatory".
• With a photo of Bodiam Castle, one  Pinterest user claims that "This Castle was owned by my husband's ancestor, Mad Jack Fuller." Fuller never married and had no known children. It is however possible that there is a family connection of some sort. 

Fuller Biography on Royal Institution of Great Britain Website

A member of a prominent family of Sussex iron masters with an extensive sugar estate in Jamaica, he attended Eton College between 1767 and 1774. In 1777 he inherited the entire family fortune and thereafter split his time between Rose-Hill, his Sussex house, and London. As a wealthy unmarried man, he was able to indulge his many interests including politics and building a number of follies in Sussex. He was Tory MP for Southampton between 1780 and 1784 and spent an enormous sum to be elected MP for Sussex in 1801. He held the seat until 1812 and pursued a colourful parliamentary career, even by the standards of the time. In 1810, after swearing in a committee, he reportedly called the Speaker ‘the little insignificant fellow in the wig' for which he spent two nights in Parliament's prison. He was a prominent patron of both art (commissioning J.M.W. Turner) and science. For the latter he supported the Royal Institution to which he made considerable loans (later written off), established the Fuller Medal and endowed, with £10,000, the Fullerian Professorships of Chemistry and of Physiology and Comparative Anatomy. Source: Royal Institution

Augustus Eliott Fuller and the Sussex Spaniel

This article presents a good history of the origin of the Sussex Spaniel. There are some sources that give the name of the breeder as "Mr. Fuller of Rose Hill, Sussex" and this creates some confusion. To date, I have no evidence that John "Mad Jack" Fuller kept Sussex Spaniels. His heir, the son of his cousin John Trayton Fuller, Augustus Elliot Fuller inherited Rose Hill upon Jack's death in 1834 was an avid hunter and is credited with developing the breed.

Augustus Eliott Fuller and the Sussex Spaniel
by Ria Hörter published in  dogsincanada.com the magazine of the Canadian Kennel Club, December 2010, pages 59 - 63. "A breeder/exhibitor/judge and retired bookseller and publisher, Ria Hörter is a contributing editor of De Hondenwereld, the national dog magazine of Holland."

Excerpts from page 59:

"Most dogs were developed after hundreds of years of evolution and lengthy selection by
breeders. However, some breeds owe their existence to just one person.Most dogs were developed after hundreds of years of evolution and lengthy selection by breeders. However, some breeds owe their existence to just one person."

"Augustus Elliot (also Eliot, Elliott and Eliott) Fuller (1777- 1857) was an extremely rich British landowner who lived in Sussex, Wales and London, and owned property in Jamaica. Around 1795 he began to develop a line of working spaniels, bred for hunting in the heavy cover and clay soil of Sussex – heavily built dogs for a heavy job.

Business with pleasure
The Fuller family had its roots in Uckfield and Waldron (east Sussex). In 1776, John Trayton Fuller married Anne Elliot, daughter of George Augustus Elliot (1st Baron Heathfield) and Anne Pollexon Drake. Their oldest son, Augustus Elliott, was born on May 7, 1777, and the young family settled in Brayley Park, later renamed Heathfield Park. When he was 14, the family moved to Ashdown House in East Grinstead. Augustus and his 10 brothers and sisters were raised as members of the privileged class of aristocratic, well-to-do 18th- and 19th-century families that combined business with pleasure, where pleasure meant hunting with dogs."

Corrections: 

• Anne Pollexfen Drake was christened on 4 Aug 1726 in Buckland Monachorum, Devon. She died on 13 Feb 1772. She was buried in South Audley Chapel, Buckland, Devon. She married Lord Heathfield George Augustus Elliot on 8 Jun 1748 in St Sepulchre, London.
• Heathfield Park was formerly called Bayley Park

Excerpt from page 61:

"The Rose Hill connection

A distant and unmarried family member named Rose Fuller died in the same year Augustus was born (1777). For 22 years, Rose Fuller (the name suggests a woman, but Rose was a man) was squire of Rose Hill, situated close to the village of Brightling in Sussex. After his death in 1777, his properties were inherited by his nephew John Fuller, known as “Mad Jack.” When Mad Jack died in 1834, Rose Hill was inherited by another nephew, Augustus Elliot Fuller. By that time, Augustus was an immensely rich man. In 1811 he inherited Ashdown House from his father, and in 1834 Rose Hill, Waldron Estate and Bodiam Castle (then already a ruin) from Mad Jack. Augustus also owned the estates Catsfield and Hooe, a house in London and Rose Fuller’s “sugar works, lands and hereditaments in the island of Jamaica.”

Corrections:

• Rose Fuller was Augustus Elliot Fuller's great-uncle; his grandfather Thomas Fuller's brother.
• Augustus Elliot Fuller was the son of John Trayton Fuller, Jack Fuller's first cousin. They were not nephew and uncle. 

Postcard 3: Fuller's Temple, Brightling Park

Produced by H. Camburn, Tunbridge Wells, for Weston, Post Office, Brightling. (Undated)

Wild Wales: the Bulkeley family and Baron Hill

Driving north from Beaumaris on the Isle of Anglesey, one can’t help noticing an obelisk on a prominent hill. We stopped briefly to photograph it and continued on our journey to Bodorgan. Upon returning home to Canada, some days later I began to search for information about the obelisk. I found out that the 90 foot tall Bulkeley Monument on Cremlyn Hill was unveiled on 1st June 1882. It is described in the Cadw (Historic Environment Service of the Welsh Assembly) report as: 'Hard ashlar, probably Penmon stone, on panelled plinth with a moulded base and cornice, standing on a square stone platform.' 1   It was built to commemorate Sir Richard Bulkeley Williams Bulkeley, 10th Bart who was born in 1801 and died 28 August 1875, after having “dominated local government and politics in Anglesey for half a century.” 2

Photo by Annette Lloyd Thomas 2013

Upon further investigation I found that the nearby Bulkeley estate, Baron Hill , has been derelict since the 1940s. We had noticed one of the gates and stopped to take photos but did not realize the connection to the obelisk and how close we were to exploring the large estate left untouched for over 60 years and now overgrown by woods.

Photo by Annette Lloyd Thomas 2013

Baron Hill was built in 1618 and underwent a massive rebuild in the Neo-Palladian style in 1776 by  architect Samuel Wyatt. Death duties during the First World War eroded the Bulkeley fortune to the extent that they could no longer maintain the estate. During the Second World War the house was occupied by the Royal Engineers. Legend has it that Polish prisoners set fire to the place in the hopes of being moved to better accommodation. Much to their chagrin, they were subsequently housed in tents on the grounds of the ruined mansion.

In recent years, the construction firm Watkin Jones has employed architects Willacyhorsewood to design the multi-million pound transformation of the Baron Hill Estate into 43 luxury apartments.3 An application for planning permission was reviewed by the Isle of Angelesey County Council on
1 December 2010 (12.3 – 12C368A – Baron Hill, Beaumaris). I am presently unable to discern the status of the application.

These amazing photos of the Baron Hill Estate, below, are reproduced here with the kind permission of North Wales photographer David Roberts.

Rear Facade and Portico 

Photo by David Roberts

Front Facade

Photo by David Roberts

The Temple

Photo by David Roberts

To see more, go to David Roberts Flickr set here