Name/Title
May 25, 1905 Bull Family History Newspaper ArticleEntry/Object ID
000424Tags
Bull FamilyScope and Content
BULL FAMILY HISTORY
A Chapter in the Early History of Orange County.
The following interesting historical sketch of the founders of the Bull family, one of no little note in our county, has been written for the ADVERTISER by the Misses Wheeler, of Warwick, who are descendants of that family and have been importuned by many friends to send them a picture or drawing of the coat of arms of the family in England. The authors obtained the design from some genealogical sketches published a few years ago in a New York paper, and in the same to meet a request for the same we reproduce the following out and description, including the sketch they have compiled from scrap books and various sources. In the accompanying illustration we have the coat of arms of the Bull family of Kingshurst Hall, England, with its description:
Sarah Wells, a Hecter arm is armed, conged in proper, the hand grasping a spear, or. Motto: "God is Fortune." (From the Visitation of Warwick.)
One William Bull, of Stafford, was the progenitor and was buried as Coleshill on April 21. His wife was Sarah, the daughter of—Bull. Their daughter, of Sugden, Kingshurst Hall, in the County of Northamton. They had children, George, born say, 1642. He married Anne, daughter of Edward Birch, of Northton, Jones, County.
The Bull family is one of the oldest in the County of Orange. The genealogical tree of the family indicates their English descent. The progenitor of the family living in this county was William Bull, son of John Bull and grandson of Jonas Bull, of Kingshurst Hall, who settled in 1718, settling at Hamptonburg. The wife of William was Sarah, daughter of Jonas Bull of Kingshurst Hall, emigrated to South Carolina before 1683. The principal street of Charlotte Court House, or what was of Kingshurst Hall, his descendants, who was believed to be a Deputy Governor of the State.
In gleanings from Atchpenter’s History of Orange County we find that the land settled by Hamptonburg was made by Christopher Denne. The date of the Wawayanda Patent was April 29, 1703. After several efforts to induce settlers to enter upon the patent had failed, the patentees determined to make the settlement themselves. Among the patentees were a few of the Palatines, a resident of New York in 1701, and one of the signers of the Protestant petition to William III in that year. In 1703 his name appears as Lord Cornbury as "one of the chiefest inhabitants" of the city and county of New York. Upon a lot on the west bank of the Otterkill, and from six to eight chains west of the Tuxedo bridge, Christopher Denne, in 1714, located a residence for himself and family. It is understood that Denne made an extensive visit through the territory and explored it before undertaking the enterprise; that he made the acquaintance of the Indians in this locality and had their good will. He is also reported to have had the aid of three of the natives to assist him in his removal and that for this purpose they
Mr. and Madam Denne were childless, but had in their family a little orphan maid, born to New Jersey, apparently, but had in their tender years lived with them on that island. The name of this orphan maid was Sarah Wells, subsequently married to William Bull, of Hamptonburg. Mr. Denne, so runs the tradition, induced name of this orphan maid was Sarah Wells, subsequently married to William Bull, of Hamptonburg. Mr. Denne, so runs the tradition, induced Mr. Eager’s account of her was derived from her immediate descendants, that when he was a boy, we can do no age when he was a boy, we can do no better than quote from his description: "In person Sarah Wells was smaller than the common height, well formed, though light and fragile she was active, and capable of remarkable exertion and endurance. This, in part, may have resulted from the fact that while young she resided on that island. The party in an open boat from Staten Island to New York, and according to the market business of her patrons. This exposure while it imparted health by her form it not only hardened and compacted a constitution otherwise delicate, but deepened the sanguine color of her complexion. Her eyes were dark, and though at times they would flash like fire, and the presumptuous intruder was sure to be wounded in the conflict and carry the scar home with him.
The full story of this expedition of Sarah Wells from the New York home to the depths of this interior wilderness, reads like a romance, and may be, related, and before her time prove that "truth is stranger than fiction." The party consisted of the three young Indians, several carpenters, and the girl, Sarah Wells. "On board the sloop by which they came up the Hudson they had all necessary utensils to open the wood and build a log cabin, carpenters and other luggage. The evening of the second day saw them at New Windsor, and here the night on board the boat and in the open boat, and may have thus habituated herself to the oar. She was probably in the habit of transacting a market business for Denne from Staten Island to New York in an open boat, and may have thus habituated herself to the oar. That this female, after such a life, had been reduced to of danger in her view. While at home she was in the habit of wandering through the woods far and further from time to time, in company with her dog, and this accustomed her to the dangers of the wilderness. The result was that she was fearless of danger, with great buoyancy of spirit, bold determination and self-reliance, and that she was not a girl to be turned back, and at night she gave her cares to caves on the wild woods of Wawayanda by day and the wild woods of Wawayanda by day and the night, and drive her boat and her cattle and the grain was taken there. The wolves howled so loud and close around her that they frightened the horses of the horse she. To escape from them she rode under the branches of a tree, tied her horse to one of them, and before the back of the horse she mounted into the top of the tree. There she spent the night, often wishing for the day, before the tardy sun left his eastern path to come at last, blushing like a maiden, for his long delay. The terrors of this night cured her of all wild adventure of the kind in future.
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