TULSE, Henry II (c.1636-97), of Hinton Admiral and Lymington, Hants.

Since Tulse’s father died intestate in 1642, when Henry was in his infancy, he seems to have been brought up by his mother and step-father, John Hildesley*, an ardent parliamentarian during the civil wars.16PROB6/18, f. 159. Nothing is known of him until 1653, when, aged about 17, he was admitted first to Wadham College, Oxford, and then to the Middle Temple; the identity of the sponsor of his special admittance to the inn does not appear, but his step-father, who was by then adding central to local office, had powerful connections. That year the family of William Tulse of Boldre near Lymington, who was almost certainly Henry’s father’s older brother, were represented for the first time in local administration, William’s son and Henry’s cousin, ‘William Tulse junior’ (d.1677) being named an assessment commissioner.17An Act for an Assessment (1653, E.1062.28); PROB11/353/407; PROB11/368/351. In the next two decades Henry and his cousin William sometimes both appeared on local commissions, while William’s younger brother (Sir) Henry Tulse (d. 1689), with whom our MP has sometimes been confused, pursued a mercantile career in London, where he was an alderman, sheriff, and lord mayor.18SR; PROB11/394/454; Woodhead, Rulers of London.

Tulse probably reached maturity only in 1657. He was then living with his mother and step-father within the parish of Christchurch, where they were recorded as having made contributions for the local poor out of their lands in Hinton.19Christchurch Priory, Vestry Min. Bk 1640-1877, p. 43. His election to Parliament only two years later, as one of the burgesses for Christchurch in 1659, reflected the strength of his family’s interest, Henry Tulse I having represented the borough in the Short and Long Parliaments, while Hildesley (who on this occasion was elected at Winchester) had been its mayor in the late 1630s. Tulse junior was returned alongside another experienced Hampshire parliamentarian, John Bulkeley*, but made no recorded impression on the records of the assembly.20Christchurch Bor. Council, Min. Bk, p. 565.

None the less Tulse was evidently a precocious young man. He seems to have been the Mr Tulse who, once the third protectorate Parliament had been resolved and the Rump had re-assembled, presented to the Commons the petition from Hampshire hailing the return of the republic and the prospect of reform (26 May 1659). According to one commentator

Mr Tulse, and another gentleman at the Bar of the House, made two excellent speeches, setting forth the wonderful providences of God in the revolution of the late years, and his miraculous delivering the people of this nation, and breaking the yoke of our oppressors, who hath skinned the people to clothe themselves; as also, of [restoring] the power and authority of the nation to the people, whose [undoubted right] it is.21Quaerees [sic] on the proposalls of the officers of the Armie (1659), 47 (E.984.3); CJ vii. 665b.

The petition itself advocated free Parliaments, liberty of conscience and the maintenance of a ‘sober’ ministry, the preservation of the freedom, rights and property of the people, and the administration of the law without corruption.22The humble petition and representation of divers well-affected of the county of South-hampton (1659, 669.f.21.40).

In the Convention Tulse sat for Christchurch alongside his stepfather, but their careers soon diverged.23Dorset RO, DC/CC: F1/11; Christchurch Bor. Council, Min. Bk, p. 566. Tainted by his activity during the interregnum, Hildesley was effectively excluded from both Parliament and local office after the Restoration, while Tulse renounced the Solemn League and Covenant, and retained his seat at Christchurch until 1679.24Christchurch Bor. Council, Min. Bk, pp. 544, 552; Dorset RO, DC/CC: F1/12. Nevertheless, he was probably opposed to the court. Although in the first election that year he was recommended by Henry Hyde†, 2nd earl of Clarendon, as a ‘worthy person’ who had ‘given so good evidence of [his] being [a] good patriot[s] in the last Parliament’, by ‘steady adhering to the true interest’ of the country ‘and the Protestant religion’, he had been approved by Anthony Ashley Cooper*, 1st earl of Shaftesbury, and voted in favour of Exclusion.25Christchurch Bor. Council, Old Letters, no. 49; Min. Bk, p. 190; Dorset RO, DC/CC: F1/13; HP Commons 1660-1690. He subsequently lost his seat at Westminster and his place on the county bench.

Tulse donated £10 towards the construction of a new town hall in Lymington in 1684, and took part in elections at Christchurch in 1690.26King, Bor. and Par. Lymington, 78; Dorset RO, DC/CC: F1/17. He drew up his will in 1695 and died on 7 June 1697, leaving a daughter and two sons, including William Tulse†, who represented Lymington in the following year.27PROB11/467/261; The Gen. n. s. x. 224-5; Vis. Hants, 49-50.