# Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 9 - Section VIII

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VIII. Bulteel.
The refugee ancestry of this family has been detailed in my Chapter II., at the beginning of a Memoir of Pasteur Jean Bulteel, of the French Church, Canterbury. The witnesses of the baptisms of his children, as given in the Historical Introduction and commented upon in my Chapter II., bring before us a living exhibition of the three brothers, James, John (the pastor), and Peter, sons of Giles Bulteel and Marie Brontin, as they appear in the visitation-pedigree of 1633-4. It is with Peter that we have now to do. By the Government-List (see Camden Society Volume) we know that he was thirty-seven years of age in the year 1618; this brings us to a formal commencement.
Peter Bulteel, of London, merchant in Broad Street Ward, was born in 1581. His wife was Hester, daughter of Hugh Harber (anglicised Herbert), a refugee at Norwich. His sons seem to have been grown-up men in the year 1633, for the fourth son, Charles, signed the official pedigree for his father in that year. There were two daughters, Hester and Sarah, and five sons, Peter, John, James, Charles, and Samuel. Peter, the son and heir, married Susanna, daughter of Peter Fortry (or de la Forterye) of London, and of East Coombe, Kent, by Leah, daughter of Laurens Des Bouverie; this Mrs. Peter Bulteel died in 1692, her only son died unmarried, and her daughters were Mrs. Mills, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Creech, Mrs. Daniel, and Mrs. Gratwich. The other sons of the elder Peter Bulteel are unrepresented, except the third son, James. He is styled James Bulteel, of London, afterwards of Barnstaple in Devonshire, and he married Miss Peard of Barnstaple. Two children of this marriage are on record. Mary, the wife of Sir Richard Vyvyan, Knt, M.P., Master of the Mint at Exeter, who was created a baronet in 1645, and is still represented in the same rank. Samuel Bulteel, of Tavistock, her brother, married a daughter of John Kekewich, Esq., of Catchfrench, Cornwall, and died in 1679. His son and successor was another Samuel Bulteel, of Tavistock, who had married Azrael, daughter of Daniel Condy, of Tavistock; but he died a year after his father, and at the early age of twenty-eight. He, however, left two sons, besides a daughter, Jane, who died young. His eldest son, a third Samuel Bulteel, died unmarried; but the second son, born in 1676, founded a family which is still existent. He was James Bulteel, Esq., of Flete, M.P. for Tavistock; his wife was Mary, daughter and heiress of Courtenay Crocker, Esq., of Lynam (or Lynham, or Lyneham). Mr. Bulteel died in 1756, aged eighty; and his eldest son, James, died leaving a son, Courtenay Crocker Bulteel, unmarried. The daughters of Mr. Bulteel, M.P., were Mary, wife of John Francis Pengelly, Esq., of Scotridge; Jane, wife of Rev. John Gandy, of Plymouth; and Catherine and Azrael, both unmarried. One surviving son continued the family, namely, John Bulteel, Esq., of Flete, who married Hon. Diana Bellenden, daughter of John, Lord Bellenden, and had four sons and three daughters — the latter being Catherine, Mrs. Harris, Diana, Mrs. Hutcheson, and Mary. The eldest son, James, was unmarried. And the next head of the family was John Bulteel, Esq., of Flete and Lyneham, who married Elizabeth, daughter of ​Thomas Pening, Esq., of London (I pass over at present his brothers, Thomas Hillesden Bulteel and Henry Bellenden Bulteel). Hitherto dates have been scarce, and I have not the date of the death of the John Bulteel, Esq., just mentioned; he had three daughters and two sons, John-Crocker, and Courtenay-James-Cooper. But we have dates as to the elder of these two sons, namely, John Crocker Bulteel, Esq., of Flete and Lyneham. He married, on 13th May 1826, Lady Elizabeth Grey, second daughter of Charles, second Earl Grey, K.G., known as the father of the Reform Bill. After the passing of that Bill, which gave additional members to Devonshire, Mr. Bulteel sat as M.P. for South Devon. He was High Sheriff of Devonshire in 1841. He died on 10th September 1843, while Lady Elizabeth Bulteel survived till 8th November 1880.
Their only son, John, born 26th June 1827, was only sixteen years of age at his father’s death. Much of the ancestral property seems to have been sold, and he is now styled John Bulteel, Esq. of Pamflete. He married, on 23d March 1854, Euphemia Emily, daughter of the late Lieut-Colonel Parsons, and has a son and heir, and other children.
The daughters of Mr. and Lady Elizabeth Bulteel are — (1) Mary Elizabeth, (2) Georgiana Frances, (3) Louisa Emily Charlotte. The eldest was a Maid of Honour to the Queen, and was married, on 30th April 1861, to the Right Hon. Sir Henry Frederick Ponsonby, K.C.B., Private Secretary to the Queen. On the same day her youngest sister was married to Edward Charles Baring, Esq., now Lord Revelstoke.
* ↑ This may possibly be “John Bulteel, gentleman,” whom I put among the literati as a son of the Canterbury pastor.
* ↑ “The Commons (3d February 1710) agreed with the committee that James Bulteel, Esq., and not Mr. Maniton, was duly elected for Tavistock.” — Luttrell.