Samuel Bullen (c.1622-1692) (52 Ancestors Week 31) Theme: "Easy"

Easy? Yes, it was all far too easy. You never really think before hitting "enter" that one innocent internet search could lead to a life-changing obsession with family history. But that's how it happened.

My uncle Robert W. Anderson had researched and put together a family history of my mother's side of the family back in the 1970's. Every so often I would take a look at it and wonder what names preceded the earliest ancestors that he had found, namely my 8X great grandparents Samuel Bullen and his wife Mary Morse who were in New England in the 1600's. Once while browsing through the stacks in the Calgary Public Library in the mid 1980's I had come upon a book entitled "New England Marriages Prior to 1700" and even found the entry for their marriage on the 10th of August 1641 at Dedham/Medfield.

Sawin - Bullen - Bullard Home, Sherborn, MA
Probably built by Samuel Bullen or son Ephraim, late 1600's
Photo taken 1999

No further developments occurred until June of 1997 when I performed that seemingly innocuous internet search for "Samuel Bullen" "Mary Morse" probably on either AltaVista or Yahoo (yes, my younger friends, there were search engines before Google). The results came tumbling onto my screen faster than I was able to open and read them. So much information! So easy.

New England ancestors are perhaps the easiest of all to research. Records in Plymouth Colony were kept quite meticulously in the early days. It is far easier to find records pertaining to my New England ancestors in the 1600's than it is to find those pertaining to later ancestors in the 1800's in places like Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota or Pennsylvania. And, even though my Scandinavian ancestors came from societies with excellent records, the language and handwriting styles have made those significantly less easy to research.

What I was easily able to learn about Samuel Bullen:

• Born in England and came to Watertown near Boston in 1636
• In Dedham, MA by 1639 where he was one of the signers of the Dedham Compact and took the freeman's oath in 1641
• Married Mary Morse, daughter of Samuel Morse and Elizabeth Jasper 10 August 1641

Marriage record for Samuel and Mary, 1641

• Samuel and Mary had a family of 10 children born between 1642 and 1664 including my 7X great grandfather Ephraim Bullen (1653-1694)
• Owned a house in Dedham by 1646
• One of the 13 original settlers of Medfield, MA when it was established in 1651

Medfield, Massachusetts

• Named as one of those in charge of laying out the line between Dedham and Medfield, laying out highways and house-lots
• His Medfield lot was 10 acres abutting on the waste lands to the south-east, north-east and north-west and to a brook (probably Nantasket Brook) on the south-west
• A portion of the valuation of the town of Medfield for 1652 found on page 55 of Tilden's book lists the following for Samuel Bullin (his name and possessions all spelled as in the original):
• 7 persons . . . . . 70   0   0
• House . . . . . . . .20   0   0
• Brok land . . . . . 36   0   0
• 5 ac unbrok  . . . 7    10  0
• 2 oxen . . . . . . . .14   0   0
• 2 cowes . . . . . . .12   0   0
• 1 3 yearling . . . . . .5   0  0
• 2 2 yearling   . . . . .7   0  0
• 2 yerling . . . . . . . . 2   0  0
• 2 swine . . . . . . . . .2   0   0
•                           175   10  0
• Tilden says that by 1657 the Medfield meeting-house was complete and "Brother Bullen had 2s. 6d. for bringing it up, also 5s. 8d. for drawing timber and seats."

• In 1659 he received a lot of 126 acres in Medfield
• When his buildings were burned by the Indians during King Philip's War, he took his family to Sherborn to live near Mary's brother Daniel Morse.
• While at Sherborn, he was a tenant on Captain Hull's farm and had land assigned to him west of the common and it is thought that he may have built the Brush Hill Road house shown above at that time (son Ephraim had built a house nearby).

A volunteer at the local historical society thought that this house might have
 been the one where Samuel and his family lived when they came to Sherborn
Photo taken 1999

• Upon his return to Medfield, he rebuilt his home and was one of the Selectmen there in 1682
• Chosen Deacon prior to 1689
• Died 16 January 1692 at Medfield and was buried there at Vine Lake Cemetery
• Widow Mary died less than a month later on Valentine's Day.

Vine Lake Cemetery in Medfield, MA
Photo taken 1999

Original stone reads: "Samuel Bullen husband to Mary Bullen
dyed aged 70 Jan 16 1691/2"
Photo courtesy Bill Boyington, Findagrave.com

Memorial marker erected by descendants a century after his death:
"In memory of Dean. Samuel Bullen who died Janry. 16th 1692. Aged 70 years.
He was the First European who Setled in this Town with a family."
(Almost illegible when this photo was taken in 1999)

Not so Easy

There's always a "but", isn't there? Before he is recorded in Watertown in 1636, Samuel remains a mystery. No record can be found for his arrival in America on any particular ship. No record can be found that definitively connects him to parents or a place of birth in England. There has been much speculation over the years on message boards scattered on the internet, but none of it has been proven. Some theories and tantalizing hints:

• A Samuel Bullen, christened in 1618 is listed in IGI records for Carleton-rode, Norfolk, England, son of John Bullen
• Given the common naming practices of the time (where the grandparents' first names were generally adopted for the first children), the fact that Samuel and Mary named the first four of their children Samuel, Mary, Elizabeth and John might indicate that Samuel's father was probably named either Samuel or John (since Mary's father was also called Samuel, the first-born son might have been named for him rather than for either his father or paternal grandfather). Possibly Samuel's mother's name was Mary if the first-born daughter was named for Samuel's mother rather than for his wife; the second daughter was named Elizabeth which was Mary's mother's name. Probably we are looking for Samuel's parents to be named Mary and either Samuel or John Bullen.
• In an email to me dated 24 December 1999, Nic Burns favoured the prospect that Samuel Bullen was from Hoxne, Suffolk which borders Stradbroke, Suffolk. Nic had found a book entitled "Able Men of Suffolk, 1638" in which he found a Samuel Bullen listed along with John Bullen and John Bollen in Hoxne, along with the families of many of the Dedham, Massachusetts settlers. Nic believes that Samuel may have known Mary Morse's Suffolk family in England before emigrating. Nic also had located an index of Suffolk wills that indicated a record for a "Bolen, John, the elder, tailor, Stradbroke, 1661 R68/218, W91/39." (I like Nic's theory since my husband was born in Suffolk and we have a clock that was built in Stradbroke in the late 1700's. We also spent some time in the pub there between a family wedding and reception in the vicinity in 1994.)
• A family tree located at familysearch.org in April of 2013 has Samuel's parents listed as Samuel Bullen b. 1590 and Mary Jeremy or Jermy or Jermyn born 1593. Possible location for this family is given as Redgrave, Suffolk, which would certainly tie in with the Morse family (see my blog post on Mary Morse's grandfather Thomas Morse). Unfortunately no source information was given for this.
• The origin of the name Bullen (variations abound including Boleyn, Bullin, Bullion, Bullan, Bolen, Bolland) is French with the original English holder of that surname coming from Boulogne in France. 
• One bit of family lore that creeps into every discussion of Samuel's origins is his possible family connection to Anne Boleyn (sometimes spelled Bullen), the unfortunate second wife of King Henry VIII. Since most of Anne's close family were executed at about the same time as she was beheaded, it is unlikely that any connection is a particularly close one. Possibly some Boleyn/Bullen cousin of Anne's family was an ancestor of Samuel's. (It is worth remembering that, although the story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn seems historically remote, it occurred in the 1530's, less than a century before Samuel's birth.) No likely connection has ever been found.

Sources:

• Tilden, William S., "History of the Town of Medfield Massachusetts 1650-1886", Boston: Geo. H. Ellis, Publisher, 1887
• Ancestry.com, "Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988"  for Samuell Bullin (Provo, UT, USA)
• Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts to the Year 1850; Boston, 1903
• Todd, Charles E., "Bullen Family", privately prepared and emailed 24 August 1997
• Flynn, Diane Wilson, "Descendants of Deacon Samuel Bullen" family tree provided 4 July 1999
• Gosnold, Flora Bullen compiler, "Genealogy and Work of Rev. Joseph Bullen, Jr., Some Associated Families", 1968, copy provided by Diane Flynn
• "Genealogical Dictionary of New England Settlers Results.htm" obtained online 09/02/99
• Train, May Philips, "Samuel Bullen and Some of his Descendants", Privately printed 1941