Family and Education

s. of Sir Richard Bulkeley of Beaumaris by his first w. and bro. of Richard Bulkeley I. educ. ?Hart Hall, Oxf. c.1568; L. Inn 20 Mar. 1571, called 1580.

Offices Held

Recorder, Beaumaris by 1586; bencher, L. Inn 1589, Autumn reader 1593.

Biography

Bulkeley was a lawyer, ‘one that loves to see fashions, and desires to know wonders’, as he wrote to John Wynn. His family influence enabled him to acquire the recordership of Beaumaris and to represent the borough in Parliament until his early death. In June 1589 he wrote from London to the mayor of Beaumaris enclosing a note of expenses he had incurred in the previous legal term, which, ‘together with my wages for the last Parliament and my fee for this year, I hope you will send me’. He sponsored a bill on cloth export in the Parliament of 1586 (7 Nov.), and he may have been the ‘Mr. Buckley’ who was added to the committee for the city of Lincoln bill on 11 Mar. 1589. He died toward the end of 1593, letters of administration being granted in December to his brother, (Sir) Richard.

Bulkeley had a brother or half-brother also called Thomas, who was mayor of Beaumaris in 1586 and 1598, and was still alive after the turn of the century. It is just possible that it was he who was the MP in 1584. There need be no such doubt about the other Parliaments, for the Member is called ‘recorder of Beaumaris’ on the 1586 return, ‘learned in the law’ on the 1589 return and ‘of Lincoln’s Inn’ on a 1593 Crown office list.

L. Inn Black Bk. ii. 14, 28; Neale, Commons, 150; C219/30/129; Arch. Camb. Supp. (1917), p. 285; D’Ewes, 394, 445; PCC admon. act bk. 1593, f. 77.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: M.R.P.

Notes