BULLER, Francis (1723-64), of Antony, Cornw.

Francis Gashry, writing to Governor Trelawny on 25 July 1749 about Buller’s marriage to Lady Carew, added, ‘He is a worthy, hopeful young man, who designs to stick to the law.’Add. 19038, ff. 44-45. As the lawyer of the family Francis Buller was naturally active in his brothers election affairs,Several letters from him of 1753 and 1760 dealing with them are among the Buller mss at Antony. and in 1761 John Buller turned out John Frederick from the seat at West Looe he had held since 1743, and put in Francis. In Bute’s list Francis Buller is marked ‘Tory’—‘Administration’ would have been more correct: in October 1761 Newcastle sent him the parliamentary whip, which was not sent to James Buller or any other real Tory. On 13 Nov. 1762 Newcastle classed him as ‘contra’; and of the three brothers Francis was the only one to appear in Fox’s list of Members favourable to the peace preliminaries. On 7 Feb. 1763 James Buller wrote to Bute to second Francis’s request to be ‘put into some creditable office’—‘I know his principles and disposition from the beginning have been strong in favour of the cause which your Lordship has undertaken. The sooner your Lordship would place him in some employment, the greater the obligation will be esteemed.’Add. 5726, f. 97. He was made groom porter on 15 Dec. 1763; and again of the three brothers he was the only one never to vote against the Government over general warrants. But even he opposed the cider tax—a privileged occasion for Members from the Western counties: he is specifically mentioned by Harris on 10 Feb. 1764 as opposing it, and some of the speeches against it marked ‘Buller’ without initials may have been his, though most were probably John’s.

He died 31 Oct. 1764, and the next day Grenville wrote to James Buller that his brother’s ‘sentiments in regard to the public business in general as well as his friendly dispositions towards me in particular, make me lament his loss very sincerely’.Grenville letter bk.