Cuthbert Bullitt (c. 1740 – 1791) was an American colonial planter and lawyer from

Prince William County, Virginia Prince William County lies beside the Potomac River in the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 482,204, making it Virginia's second most populous county. The county seat is the independent city of Manassas. A part ...

. During the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

, he was a local and colonial politician, and voted against ratification of the U.S. Constitution at the Virginia Ratification Convention.

Early and family life

Bullitt was born on his parents' plantation in

Fauquier County, Virginia Fauquier County is a county (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 72,972. The county seat is Warrenton, Virginia, Warrenton. Fa ...

, and was descended from French

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

. His grandfather, Benjamin Bullett (so spelled at the time), was from

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (, , ; ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately . History ...

in southern France, and emigrated across the Atlantic Ocean to escape the religious restriction of Huguenots after the

Edict of Fontainebleau The Edict of Fontainebleau (18 October 1685, published 22 October 1685) was an edict issued by French King Louis XIV and is also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to prac ...

. He settled in the

Province of Maryland The Province of Maryland was an Kingdom of England, English and later British colonization of the Americas, British colony in North America from 1634 until 1776, when the province was one of the Thirteen Colonies that joined in supporting the A ...

in 1685 and operated a

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

near Port Tobacco in Charles County. His son Benjamin married Elizabeth Harrison, descended from the

First Families of Virginia The First Families of Virginia, or FFV, are a group of early settler families who became a socially and politically dominant group in the British Colony of Virginia and later the Commonwealth of Virginia. They descend from European colonists who ...

. They had five children, including Cuthbert. He and his brother, Thomas Bullitt, both settled in Prince William County and became locally prominent -- Cuthbert as a planter and lawyer and Thomas as a soldier who commanded local troops westward on military and exploratory journeys. In 1760 Cuthbert Bullitt married Helen Scott (1739-1795), eldest daughter of Rev. James Scott (d.1782) of Dettingen parish, whose uncle Rev. Alexander Scott (1686-1733) of then-vast Overwharton Parish (now

Aquia Church Aquia Church is an historic church and congregation at 2938 Richmond Highway (US 1 at VA 610) in Stafford, Virginia, USA. It is an Episcopal congregation founded in 1711, that meets in an architecturally exceptional Georgian brick building th ...

) had received considerable land in Fauquier and Prince William Counties from Lord Fairfax. Although two of her brothers drowned at sea, three continued the Scott family's military and legal traditions.

James Scott James Scott may refer to: Entertainment * James Scott (composer) (1885–1938), African-American ragtime composer * James Scott (director) (born 1941), British filmmaker * James Scott (actor) (born 1979), British television actor * James Scott (Sh ...

became a Virginia legislator and Revolutionary soldier; Rev. John Scott (a Maryland Loyalist) later briefly served as rector of Dettingen parish and his son became state senator and judge John Scott (1781-1850): Gustavus Scott would become an early commissioner laying out the new federal city in the

District of Columbia Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

further upstream along the Potomac River. The Bullitts had six children: Alexander Scott Bullitt (who also served in the House of Delegates and became a pioneer settler in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

), Thomas James, Frances, Sarah, Helen, and Sophia.

Career

Bullitt developed his plantation, known as ''Mount View'', on a peninsula where

Quantico Creek Quantico Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 partially tidal tributary of the Potomac River in eastern Prince William County, Virginia. Quantico ...

enters the

Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...

. He also donated land which became the town of

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

, which was a port for shipping tobacco until it silted up after his man's lifetime. On 24 September 1765 Bullitt shot and killed Virginia Burgess John Baylis in a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

. Baylis had insulted Bullitt's brother-in-law, then 18-year old John Scott. He was acquitted on grounds of self defense. As the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

neared, Bullitt became active politically, as did his militia officer brother Thomas as well as his Scott in-laws, among others. Bullitt joined Prince William County's Committee of Safety as did Lynaugh Helm and

Henry Lee III Henry Lee III (January 29, 1756 – March 25, 1818) was an early American Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot and politician who served as the ninth Governor of Virginia and as the Virginia United States House of Representatives, Representa ...

. In 1776 Prince William County voters elected Bullitt and Lee as the county's delegates to the fifth Virginia Revolutionary Convention. That meeting became a constitutional convention, producing an interim constitution used by the new Commonwealth for the next several years. Serving the new state government, Bullitt became the Commonwealth Attorney (prosecutor) in Prince William County. He also served several terms part-time as one of Prince William County's representatives in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

. Fellow legislators elected Bullitt a state court judge in 1780. He then let his eldest son Alexander Scott Bullitt gain legislative experience, but after his son relocated to Kentucky, Bullett resumed his part-time legislative service. His last quasi-legislative service was in 1788, when Bullitt represented Prince William county with

William Grayson William Grayson (1742 – March 12, 1790) was a planter, lawyer and statesman from Virginia. After leading a Virginia regiment in the Continental Army, Grayson served in the Virginia House of Delegates before becoming one of the first two U ...

during the

Virginia Ratifying Convention The Virginia Ratifying Convention (also historically referred to as the "Virginia Federal Convention") was a Convention (meeting), convention of 168 delegates from Virginia who met in 1788 to ratify or reject the United States Constitution, whic ...

concerning the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

. Both Prince William County delegates conformed with fellow planter

George Mason George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, where he was one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution. His wr ...

(who owned plantations and a ferry in Prince William County but represented Stafford County), and voted against ratification. Bullitt patented 8000 acres on the north fork of Licking Creek in Kentucky in 1788. His name is spelled three ways in the 1787 state tax census. Nonresident "Cuthbert Bullet" owned land and no slaves in Botetourt County, Virginia (near his late brother's area of exploration); nonresident ""Cuthbert Bullitt" owned 19 enslaved people older than 16 and 25 under that age in Fauquier County (where he was born and his father had owned land), and "Cuthbert Bullett" owned five enslaved adults and nine children in Prince William County.

Death and legacy

Judge Bullitt died at his Mount View plantation in 1791. His will was dated May 16, 1791.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bullitt, Cuthbert 1740s births 1791 deaths Virginia lawyers 18th-century American judges 18th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly American people of French descent American planters

Cuthbert Cuthbert of Lindisfarne () ( – 20 March 687) was a saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Hiberno-Scottish mission, Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monastery, monasteries of Melrose Abbey#Histo ...

Delegates to the Virginia Ratifying Convention Huguenot history in the United States People from Fauquier County, Virginia People from Prince William County, Virginia People from colonial Virginia 18th-century American lawyers American duellists