BULLER, John (1771-1849), of Morval, Cornw.

Buller inherited the ‘old mansion’ of Morval from his father in 1793, along with the parliamentary patronage of nearby West Looe.3 Ibid. 179. His customs commissioner’s salary of £1,400 attracted the attention of radical publications, and though he gave up his post in 1823 he was surely the ‘James Buller’ referred to in 1831 as

a mild amiable person ... [who] disposing of his seats to the government, was made a commissioner of customs; was unfortunately attacked with deafness; marries; is tired of London; retires to the country; makes rooms for some other protégé of government, and saddles the country with a pension of £1,100.4 Black Bk. (1820), 22; J. Wade, Extraordinary Black Bk. (1831), 428.

He had indeed accommodated treasury nominees, but he generally preferred family connections after 1820 and returned himself at the general election of 1826. As in 1796, this was no more than a temporary measure. He was granted six weeks’ leave on account of a relative’s illness, 9 Feb., but was present to vote for Catholic relief, 6 Mar. 1827. He retired later that month in favour of his brother-in-law Sir Charles Hulse, who had previously sat for the borough. At the dissolution in 1831 he removed his nephew Charles, apparently for having voted for the Grey ministry’s reform bill. The passage of the Reform Act in 1832 deprived him of his borough interest and there is no evidence that he ever sought to re-enter the Commons. William Makepeace Thackeray, a friend of his nephew, visited Morval in June of that year and found his host ‘very civil’. In January 1842 there were grave fears for Buller’s health, but he evidently rallied and later took an interest in new techniques for the extraction of metals.5 Thackeray Letters ed. G.N. Ray, i. 245; Cornw. RO, Buller mss DD/BU, J. Parkinson to Harriet Buller, 25 Jan. 1842, W. Longuaird? to Buller, 18 Nov. 1848, 9, 21 Feb. 1849, reply, n.d. He died ‘suddenly, while dressing’ in April 1849 and left the Morval estate to his only son John Francis Buller (1818-90).6 Plymouth Herald, 7 Apr. 1849; PROB 11/2094/417; IR26/1826/480.