Francis Buller (died 1682)

Arms of Buller: Sable, on a cross argent quarter pierced of the field four eagles displayed of the first^[1]

Francis Buller (c 1630 – 1682) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1659 and 1679.

Origins

Buller was the eldest son and heir of Francis Buller, MP, of Shillingham near Saltash in Cornwall, by his wife Thomasine Honeywood and was baptised at Saltash on 10 January 1630.^[2] His younger brother and eventual heir was John Buller (1632–1716), also a Cornish MP.^[3]

Education

He was educated at Leyden in 1643^[3] and at Trinity College, Cambridge where he was awarded BA in 1647. He also entered Middle Temple in 1646, received MA from Oxford in 1649 and was called to the bar in 1652.^[2]

Career

In 1659, Buller was elected Member of Parliament for Cornwall in the Third Protectorate Parliament.^[3] In 1660 he was elected MP for Saltash in the Convention Parliament and re-elected in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament remaining until 1679.^[4] He was considered one of the most powerful presbyterians in the country. In1662 he became recorder of Saltash. He was active in parliament on behalf of the tinners of Cornwall. In 1666 he was tried under the Security Act for treason on account of indiscrete speech and was fined £30,000. He lost his own estate and his first wife's estate was alienated. Later he retired to the Cambridgeshire estate of his second wife. He received few votes in the election of 1679 and did not stand for parliament again.^[3]

Marriages & progeny

Buller married twice:

• Firstly on 22 October 1652 to Elizabeth Grosse, daughter and sole heiress of Ezekiel Grosse of Gowlden, attorney of Cornwall. She inherited 17 manors from her father.^[5] Their son James Buller (d.1707) died without issue, when his heir became his uncle John Buller (1632–1716), MP.
• Secondly in 1666 to Lady Catherine Maynard, daughter of John Rushout, merchant of London, and widow of Sir John Maynard of Tooting Graveney, Surrey.

Death

Buller died "in a frenzy" at the age of 52.^[3]

References

1. Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937, p.279, Buller of Downes
2. "Buller, Francis (BLR646F)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. Basil Duke Henning The House of Commons, 1660–1690
4. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 2)
5. Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937, p.279