Fulton Lineage, Part 1. Circulated, in part, as an email to family -in the series Peripatetic Peregrinations.
Fulton Lineage
Exploring my paternal side : rather egotistically, but also logically, I am starting with self Fulton links through marriage shown in brief (expanded further on):
b.1934 : Joseph Thomas Fulton
1930 : Francis BJ Fulton/ Christina S. Byrne 1901: Thomas B. Fulton/ Mary M.Whyte
1852 : John J. Fulton / Emily Selina Woodward
1820: John H. Fulton / Caroline HurdisneeJeffreys; 1822 : James Woodward / Harriet Selway c.1784 James Fulton /AnnHamilton; 1794: Thomas Jeffreys/ AnneGunning; c.1802….. Woodward / Spanish lady: 1790: Henry Selway/Mary Kerhart
17 ?? Robert Hamilton/ Agnes Fotheringham 17 ?? Richard Jeffreys/ ??? c.1763 John Gunning/ DorothyWarren 1766 Henry Chenen Selway/ HannahGould
PROBABLY (more research required) :c.1746 : JamesFulton/JanetArmour, m.22.5.1746, Stewart, Ayr (this fits family lore that Fultons emanated from Ayrshire. Children of James & Ann were born in Markinch, Fife. Several spent their lives in Fife (Dubbyside, lnnerleven, Scone, Dysart).
As told to my uncle, ETW Fulton (JTF) in 1952 by Benedictine nun, Dame Agnes Wood OSB- Margaret Mary Etheldreda Wood- my father’s first cousin (JTF) and reproduced in his ‘The Fulton Family and its Connections’ (pale-blue-covered booklet):
‘The Fulton family of Grangehill ,Ayrshire, are of Anglo-Saxon origin, settled first in Essex, and afterwards moved northwards at the Norman Invasion. Fulton, Fullerton, Fullerton are said to have been originally the same clan. The Grangehill Estate, on which are said to be tin mines, is now in Chancery owing to the long absence of our great grandfather, Robert Fulton* in the Indian Army, who failed to register the birth of his children in the parish register at Grangehill.‘
* Robert Fulton : Dame Agnes’s great-grandfather ( my gt gt grandfather (JTF) was not Robert but John H.Fulton. He would have had no reason to register births of his six children in Grangehill. There MAY have been a ‘Robert Fulton’ as ancestor at least two generations earlier There is Dr Robert Fulton who married Ann Hamilton’s sister Janet. Also Commander Robert Fulton RN (1793-1869), brother of John H.Fulton.
Fairly reliable documentation enables one to trace several lines back many generations : HAMILTON (Scotland), JEFFREYS (Wales}, GUNNING (Cornwall> Somerset> London), WARREN (Suffolk, Kent) More detail on these families below.
JOSEPH THOMAS FULTON– b. 4.4.1934, Neridah St, Chatswood, son of Francis Benedict Jeffreys FULTON (1903-1976) and Christina Sylvia BYRNE (1900-1992). Educated St Thomas’s, Willoughby and SJC, Hunters Hill. Taught as Marist Brother Redmond Adrian FMS from 1954 to 1981 ( mainly, English, Lati n,French, Ancient History, Religion. At times, Chemistry, Biology, Social Studies, Algebra, Geometry, Arithmetic, Music and Art. )
Siblings : Mary Teresa (1932- 2017 ) m. D.Krone; (1926-1998)
Anne Margaret (1936-1991) m. J.P.Hill;
Francis Xavier (1938 -2002) m. Anne Kenny.
FRANCIS BENEDICT JEFFREYS FULTON b.22May, 1903, Randwick, son of Thomas Benedict Fulton{1869- 1915) & Mary Margaret Whyte (1872-1941). Educ. St Charles, Waverly till about age fourteen – left school early (father’s death, mother’s breast cancer). Customs clerk at Parsons. Very successful in sport: cricket, baseball, surfing. Enlisted WW II (RAAF). With Occupation Forces, Japan, 1946-47. Retired from RAAF after jeep accident (driver, apprehended after stealing the jeep. Frank detailed to accompany him back to Regents Park camp-driver crashed into water canal, killed. Frank into hospital).Given pension, but lost it for failing to attend regular medical appointments (on principle ! believed nothing wrong with him !) – developed phobia re riding in cars .Customs clerk with Tomasetti & Co. until launched out as Customs agent in his own right-not very successful, despite long hours at work & home, partly because of his tendency to do much probono work for clergy & convents. Very staunch Catholic, spending a lot of time in St Vincent de Paul welfare work and parish activities. Great devotion to the daily Rosary and Holy Name Sodality. Acclaimed as MC and orator at social functions. Heavy smoker, loved a beer, gambled moderately (horse racing). Died (lung cancer), 1976, on his birthday. Buried, Sutherland.
Siblings Edward Thomas Whyte (1904-1999) m. Gwendoline Dobinson; John Norbert Woodward (1906-1972) m. Grace Hellyer; Charles Joseph (1907-1908); Mary Hamilton {1909-1988) m. Holman (Harry) Asquith; Henry Bernard Claughton ?(1911-1942)
Christina BYRNE:Patrick Joseph Byrne/ Ellen Hannan
Gpts : PatrickByrne,MaryCarey, John Hannan/ EllenKelleher
Gt gpts: James Byrne/ Sarah Franklin, John Carey/MatildaByrne, ?Hannan, Patrick Kelleher, Margaret McNamara,
Gt gtgpts: John Byrne I Ann Byrne, George Franklin/ ? ?,
/Sarah Best
MichaelCarey/??, PatrickByrne
(N.B. Note the two Byrne lines: 1. John>James>Patrick & Patrick >Matilda> Mary: united with marriage (1851} of Patrick Byrne & Mary Carey).
References :AmyHumphries, Branching Out– the Familv of Patrick and Sarah ByrneJoe Fulton, JamesByrne1769-1849 (pub/.privately)
THOMAS BENEDICT FULTON b.7.1.1869, Bath, Somerset, son of John Jeffreys Fulton (1825-1886) & Emily Selina Woodward{1835-1922). Edu. StBasil’s, London & Downside Abbey. Graduated 2nd Lieutenant in the KOSB (Kings Own Scottish Borderers) from Royal Military College, Sandhurst (1888-1889).He served in India, Myanmar (Burma) and England before transferring to the 2nd West India Regiment in 1893. He served with this Corps in the West Indies and in Sierra Leone. Suffering considerably from fever & dystentery, he resigned his commission in 1896. After a couple of years of commercial life in London, he accepted an offer to go to New Caledonia in connection with a project supplying nickel ore to Newcastle, NSW. On his way back to England, he opted to return to Newcastle to accept ‘a very good and tempting’ offer to join the about to-be-established ‘NSW Smelting &Refining Works’. After 18 months, the project fell through. Thomas succeeded in obtaining temporary employment for a few years, during which time he met his future wife, Mary Margaret Whyte, at Mass. They were married (16.7.1901) in StMary’s, Newcastle, and moved to Sydney shortly after. He now moved into the Real Estate business (which may explain why the young family lived at 11 different addresses in Waverley, Randwick and Kensington over the next dozen or so years). Following his death( 27.4.1915, aged 46, buried Waverley), the young family was split up for a while, among relatives, while Mary underwent treatment for breast cancer.
Siblings: Robert Graeme (1851-1851), John Graeme Woodward m.Amy Daniel, Gertrude Caroline Selina Wilson (1854-1934) m. Alexander Wood, Frederick Edward James (1856-1859), Mary Hamilton (1858-1925), Francis Norman James (1860-1912) – Benedictine monk (Dom Meinrad OSB), Edward Burton (1863-1882) – died from falling on his sword from a horse, 5th Africa, buried Parish church nr Downside Abbey, William Joseph Henry (aka Joseph William Henry) 91864-1919) m. Maude Blundell, Wellington NZ.
Mary Margaret Whyte: William Henry Whyte/ Catherine Elizabeth Boyd
Gpts : William Henry Whyte I Mary Anne BrunkerneeMcGreavy James Boyd I MargaretGooley
Gt gpts : George Whyte/ Margaret Greyhame James McGreavy IMargaretTynan ?Boyd, PhilipGooley
I Margaret Ryan
Gt Gtgpts: ?Whyte ?McGreavy Ryan I Mary??
James Tynan/ MaryAnnThompson Wm Gooley / Mgt?? D.
JOHN JEFFREYS FULTON (b.28.7.1825, Trichinopoly, son of John H.Fulton (1785-1853) & Caroline Hurdis nee Jeffreys(c.1800-1878). Joined Honourable East India Company (HEIC) (Army division) in 1842 as Ensign with the 32nd Regiment of Native Infantry at Jaulnak. (An officer in this regiment was Major James Woodward whose daughter Emily Selina Woodward would become John Jeffreys’ wife in 1852 ).The regiment moved to Madras in 1848, with John promoted to lieutenant the following year. Postings to Kamptee, Jubbulpore, Saugor and back to Kamptee followed in the next few years ( till Feb. 1857). In January, 1858, John was promoted to Captain. With the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny in May,1858, John despatched Emily and his young family to England. Following the cessation of the mutiny (June,1858), John took his furlough, rejoining his family in England.They returned to India in 1860, John to his regiment in Moulmein, Myanmar. In 1862 , John was appointed Assistant Commissioner ,Central Province, a position he held for five years, during which time he was promoted to Major. It is family lore that, during the family’s long stay in Secunderabad, Emily Selina assisted the local Bishop with secretarial work and in due course she was converted to Catholicism, with all the children also following suit – my grandfather, Thomas Benedict, being the only one baptised shortly after birt h. This led to the children being sent back in due order to Catholic schools in England. The schools favoured were Benedictine : Downside Abbey near Bath for the boys and Stanbrook Abbey, Worcestershire for the girls. In 1867, John was back with the 32nd Regiment as Wing Officer. Further promotions for John : Lieut.Colonel (1868), 1873, appointed Colonel of the 31st Regiment. In 1878, this regiment was posted to Thayetmo in Myanmar. He remained there until he retired in 1880 with the rank of Major-General. He returned to Bascombe, Bournemouth where he died on 23 Jan., 1886 – just three weeks after his brother, General Graeme AuchmutyFulton.
Now for the enigma: Family lore has it that the ordination of his son, Francis Norman James Fulton, professed as Dom Meinrad OSB, was brought forward to mid-Decembe r, 1885, so that he could receive his father into the Church and administer the Last Rites. BUT note the following, in Wm Gordon-Gorman’s Converts to Rome, p.111 (1899), a book detailing c.4000 prominent Britons who had embraced Catholicism in recent years
FULTON, Major John Jeffreys {1826-1886} G.C.B., of the Madras Staff Corps; Chamberlain to Pope Leo XIII
Amazing that this appears to be totally ignored in details re John that have come down through the generations ! (And obviously puts in doubt the notion of conversion on his deathbed required !)
More research
Siblings : Graeme Auchmuty {1820-1886) m. (1) Anna Guerin (2)LucyHadfield, James Robert(1821-1875)
m. Eliza b et h Waters; Helen Hamilton (1827-1899) m. Thomas Kensington Whistler, Flora Ann {1829-1907)
m. RichardJeffreys(cousin), Emma (1830-1889) m. John ReddieBlack.
(Grateful acknowledgment of the detailed research by my brother-in-law John P.Hill : His Fultons and India has been of great help in my tracking John Jeffreys Fulton’s years there.. His work provides much insight also into the careers in military service in India of John’s brothers, Graeme & James).
Emily Selina Woodward (ka ‘Selina’) Error in1901Census; ‘Emma’ (13.12.1834,Calicut,India) Pts: James Woodward (c.1802 – 1850) / Harriet Selway (1804-1849)
G’pts: ??? Woodward ( – c. 1802) ‘ … Major Woodward, our father, was an only son and his father died either before his birth or soon after, and his guardian was a General Browne. His mother died when he was only 16 and just starting for India to enter the Army. We know nothing more of them. His mother was Spanish – a very beautiful woman ‘ (from Selina’s letter to niece Effie Grove in New Zealand, 5 Aug, 1913.) Henry Selway (1770-1827) /MaryKerhart
Gt gpts: ……………………………. Henry Chenen Selway (1743-1824) / Hannah Gould, James’s mother, ‘the very beautiful’ Spanish lady, remarried – 11.9.1811 – to Cornelius Crowley.
JOHN H.FULTON(b. 30.3.1785, Markinch, Fife), son of James Fu lton {1747 -1826) & Ann Hamilton ( 1761- 1831 ) , in 1806 joined the HEIC as a cadet in the infantry. On board the ‘Lord Nelson’, bound forIndia in 1807, he was taken prisoner by the French (Napoleonic Wars). Hewas held in captivity until April, 1809, when he managed to escape. In a letter to Captain Charles Anstruther ( 9 Mar.,1810) he writes:
‘My first beginning has been rather rough and disagreeable, yet thank God I am still in the land of the living, as the phrase is, in fact I ought to be doubly thankful when Ifind there are only three of us alive out of 15 officers that belonged to the ill-fated ship ‘ Lord Nelson ‘, with the exception of three others who are still prisoners in France. Poor fellows, they have had a long while of it there now, and had I not been so fortunate as to make one of the most wonderful escapes that have been done this War, I might have been there still. My fellow companions in my escape were two intimate friends of mine, a surgeon on the Bengal Establishment and a Lieutenant in the Navy. We came out covered up in a hay cart which took us eight leagues, after which we travelled by night and lay in the woods during the day. It would take a great many sheets were I toggle you a full detail of our sufferings and wonderful escapes which we experienced during our march. Let it suffice to say that we got through it all, by having good constitutions, good fortune, and by having had a thorough knowledge of the French language.’
In May, 1810, he re-embarked for India, being promoted to lieutenant with the 6th Regiment of NativeInfantry, Madras Army. In 1819, he was Port Adjutant at Vellore. The following year (1Sept.) he married a widow, Mrs Caroline Hurdis nee Jeffreys whose husband, Captain James Curtail Hurdis, had died of cholera on 8Aug., 1819, leaving her with a daughter (Caroline Anne Naomi Hurdis, b.1817). John & Caroline’s first child, Graeme Auchmuty was born soon after: Two sources (The National Archives and ‘Edinburgh Footnotes’ place his birth as ’19 Nov.1820′ while the the 1881 census has ‘1821’ ).Two more sons and three daughters were born over the next decade. Military promotions came in quick order: 1822 (Brevet Captain), 1823 (Captain), 1831 (Deputy Assistant Quartermaster, 14 Regiment N.I., Mangalore ) 1832 (Major).In 1833, he retired and returned to Britain, probably to lnnerleven. He and daughter Emma are shown there in the 1851 Census;
– though, surprisingly, no mention of Caroline. Following John’s death on 21 Jan.1853 (from ‘a disease of the digestive organs’), we have the reading of his will in which we note’ As my wife Caroline is provided for I have not thought it necessary to leave anything to her’. Just how she was ‘provided for’ remains a mystery (apart from her pension from the Madras Military Fund ( L/AG/23/10/12 LOS microfilm 1866807) which she received until her death in Fife, 13July,1878.
The terms of John’s Will have proved a boon to Fulton genealogists :On Aug.2, 1900, we have a ‘Summons of Multiplepoinding, Exoneration and Discharge’ against Graeme Auchmuty Fulton and 29 descendants ( mainly grandchildren) of John Fulton. Details in this document include given names and residence of same with the very interesting demographic spread : parts of NSW, Tasmania, South Australia, New Zealand ( Wellington, Wanganui), Myanmar, British Guiana, India, various parts of England, various parts of Scotland, South Africa and Canada – and one who could not be traced ( George Stow Black of the Mercantile Marine ) because he was’ furth of Scotland’ – i.e. ‘atsea’.
Siblings : Ann ( 1787- ), James (1791-1839), Robert ( 1793-1869), Mary (
Caroline Hurdis nee Jeffreyswas born in Middlesex c.1797, her parents being Thomas Jeffreys and Anne Gunning. She had set sail for India on 6 Jan.,181 5 :‘Miss Caroline Jeffreys, Bond, Passenger, Fort St George
:200pounds. Sureties: Joseph Gunning, Clement’s Inn, Esq. & Daniel Stalker, Leadenhall St ,slop seller ‘(India Office Records z/0/1/8 No.180), apparently in order to marry Captain J. C.Hurdis. In like fashion, her sister Lucy ( born in the Gunning ancestral home, Torneys Court, in 1803) travelled to India in 1818 to marry Henry Turner Bushby. Her brother, Richard Gunning Jeffreys (Commander, RN ) (bapt. St George’s, Middlesex, 1801), as a young midshipman (H.M .S.’ Undaunt ed’, 1814) received a go ld chain from Napoleon when the latter was being disembarked at Elba. (chain in National Maritime Museum,Greenwich)
Gpts : Richard Jeffreys I
1813)
John Gunning (1733-1798) / Dorothy Warren (17?? -1805 OR
Gt gpts: Richard Jeffreys I John Gunning (1706-1774) I Elizabeth Lymenneed Seymour {1712- 1786}, Rev.Richard Warren {1681-1748) / Priscilla Fenner{1701-1774}
JAMES FULTON( bapt.1747-1826) : writing to Capt. Charles Anstruther, (28 M ar.,1820 :
‘I now have…survived my 73 rd year complete ‘and again on 30Dec.,1820: ‘my being upon the verge of 74years complete’. (So, born in Jan, Feb, or March.) Supposition, therefore, that his parents were James Fulton (c.1721-) and Janet Armour (c.1725-) who were married in Stewart, Ayrshire on 22.5.1746. James was a lawyer (aka ‘Writer’) in Dubbyside, lnnerleven, Fife. Just when he moved from Ayrshire is not known. About 1784, he married Ann Hamilton (1761-1831) from Kynbrackmont (Kilbrackmont), Kilconquhar, Fife. They had five children:John (1785-1853),James (1791-1839), Robert (1793-1869), Mary ( ) an Ann (1787-)
Sibling : Robert (allegedly a doctor, but no documentation found). Married Janet Hamilton, sister of Ann (above)
Ann Hamilton (1761-1831)
Pts: Robert Hamilton( – 1769) / Agnes Fotheringham
Gpts : Philip Hamilton / ??? Philip m. Helen Gedde in 1697, Margaret Weimes in 1706 and Helen Fotheringham BUT the otherwise very accurate family tree drawn up by the Scots Ancestry Research Society ( commissioned by ETW Fulton) fails to indicate who was Robert’s mother…
John H.Fulton m. Caroline Hurdis nee Jeffreys 1785-1853 1797-1878 l John Jeffreys Fulton Emma Black (brother & sister) 1825-1886 1830-1889 l l Thomas Benedict Fulton Helen Hamilton Johnson 1869-1915 1853- Nutt l l Chamberlain l l
Francis Benedict Jeffreys Fulton Emma (nee Nutt) Steer
1903-1976 1884-1960
l l
Joseph Thomas Fulton GEORGE LOWTHER STEER
1934- 1909-1944
GOOGLE ‘George Lowther Steer’ – most impressive ! Born Sth Africa, Brilliant at Oxford, noted journalist & author, specialising in highlighting atrocities (e.g. Italy, Nazi Germany) in various conflicts ( mainly 1930s : Ethiopia, Spain, Basque territory, Finland; 1940s : Asia ). Personal friend of Emperor Haile Selassie whom he assisted in latter’s exile & later restoration. George’s first marriage ( to Spanish journalist Margarita de Herrero y Hassett) ended in tragedy with Margarita’s death in childbirth. Selassie attended George’s second wedding, to Barbara Esme Barton, and was godfather to his only son, George Augustine Barton Steer ( very prominent in London business circles – e.g. Director etc. in 25+ companies ). George Lowther Steer died when his jeep overturned in West Bengal on Christmas Day, 1944. A street has been named after him in Bilbao and street & plaque honour his memory in Guernica.
NOW Google !
Helen Hamilton Black:
Married 1. Richard Johnson
Married 2. Whaley Nutt
Married 3. Harold Chamberlain
1874, to Richard Johnson – he died, two sons later, in 1877. 1882, to Whaley Nutt. One son, one daughter and a rather nutty school that the happy (hippy ?) couple ran in Edinburgh obviously wore him out : he died in 1895. Shortly after, Helen married Harold Chamberlain – and ended up in South Africa where her daughter, Emma Cecilia Armitage Nutt, married Bernard Steer.
Emma Fulton (See above) married John Reddie Black. Interestingly, her husband’s father was married to the sister of Caroline Jeffreys’ first husband, Capt.James Courtail Hurdis.
Below are links to letters written in the 19th Century by Fultons sharing family knowledge with one another.
The letters / excerpts were typed up from the originals, in the early 1900s, by James Robert Fulton (India, Tasmania, Walgett, Dungog 1850-1931 ). The following errors should be noted :
1. Misspellings : ‘Jeffries‘ for ‘ Jeffreys ‘, ‘Selima’ for ‘Selina’, ‘Glegg’ for ‘Gleig’, ‘Distington’ for ‘Dishington’, ‘Kid’ for ‘Kyd’, A typo : ‘ I.R.F’ for his initials ‘J.R.F.’
2. ‘Bishop Gleig’s letter to Kate Fulton’ (20thOctober, 1886) : NO ! Bishop George Gleig (1753-1840) was long dead. Rather. It was his son George (clergyman, army chaplain, author 1796-1888 ) who wrote the letter. So don’t be misled by James Robert Fulton’s note at the end of the extract !
Bishop Gleig , second husband of Janet Fulton nee Hamilton. was Primate of the Episcopal Church of Scotland (as also co-editor of the third edition of ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica ), Couple the bishop’s Episcopal Church affiliation with the reference to ‘Nellie Burns’ in Kate’s letter to Lily : elsewhere we learn that Nellie ( Helen Annie Magdalaine Burns / Burns-Fulton b.c.1849) married Captain Rickman in the Episcopal Church of Scotland, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire. It is logical, I believe, to presume our Hamilton and Fulton forbears of the 19thand 20thcenturies worshipped in that denomination.
NB: page 5 Missing text at bottom of page, to go before “Jabobus James Fulton… on page 6 “In reply to your favour of the 6th April, 1894, I beg to say I am no relation to your James Fulton of Dubbyside Leven. I am the second son of Thomas Fulton of Irvine, second son of Jacobus Fulton”…etc on page 6.
We think of genealogical research as a rather recent popular pursuit. Worth noting the interest reflected in the letters ( as also, elsewhere, in my great grandmother’s letter to Effie and my grandfather Fulton’s sketching out ( a tad inaccurately ! ) a ‘family tree of his immediate forbears).
From Joe – Notes on the above; p.1 : missing (being constituted the lawful heir by the High Court of ‘Justice, Probate Division to the residue of the real and
personal estate and effects, under the will of the said’
p.2 : missing thread. This Wm Fulton the present claimant I believe belongs to the Humphrey Fulton branch because all that family keep the name Wm to the front.
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