Rose Fuller FRS (12 April 1708 – 7 May 1777) was a West Indies plantation owner and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

from 1756 to 1777.

Early life

Fuller was the second son of John Fuller FRS, of

Brightling Brightling is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. It is located on the Weald north-west of Battle and west of Robertsbridge. The village lies in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty a ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, and his wife Elizabeth Rose, daughter of

Fulke Rose Fulke Rose (10 April 1644 – c. March 1694) was a British physician and early colonist of Jamaica. He was one of the principal buyers in Jamaica of slaves taken by the Royal African Company and had extensive land-holdings on the island. He c ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. His elder brother was the MP John Fuller Jr. He studied medicine at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and was also a student at

Leyden Leiden ( ; ; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 127,046 (31 January 2023), but the city forms one densely connecte ...

in the Netherlands. He graduated MD and became a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1732. Fuller went to Jamaica before 1735, where he took over the family plantation from his father. He was elected to the Assembly in 1735 and called to the council in 1737. He was made a judge of the supreme courts but as a result of disputes with the governor Edward Trelawny he was removed from the council and the bench and returned to England in 1749. He was back in Jamaica in around 1752 and was appointed Chief Justice by the next governor Charles Knowles. However he was in dispute with Knowles and returned to England on the death of his brother there, whose estate, including

Rose Hill Rose Hill may refer to: People * Rose Hill (actress) (1914–2003), British actress * Rose Hill (athlete) (born 1956), British wheelchair athlete Film * ''Rose Hill'' (film), a 1997 movie Places Australia * Rose Hill, New South Wales * Rose ...

(now known as Brightling Park), he inherited.J. Brooke, Lewis Namier ''The House of Commons 1754-1790, Volume 3''
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Political career

Fuller was a Member of Parliament for

New Romney New Romney is a market town in Kent, England, on the edge of Romney Marsh, an area of flat, rich agricultural land reclaimed from the sea after the harbour began to silt up. New Romney, one of the original Cinque Ports, was once a sea port, w ...

from 1756 to 1761, for

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

from 1761 to 1768, and for

Rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...

from 1768 to 1777.

Family

On 26 April 1737 Fuller married Ithamar Mill, daughter of Richard Mill of Jamaica. She died in Jamaica on 22 April 1738 at the age of seventeen. He died childless on 7 May 1777, and was buried at Waldron, Sussex, on 15 May 1777. His Sussex estate and foundry and Jamaican plantation passed to his nephew Mad Jack Fuller of Brightling, Sussex.

References

External links

Entry on Rose Fuller on the Legacies of British Slave Ownership website
1708 births 1777 deaths People from Brightling Colony of Jamaica judges Fellows of the Royal Society Chief justices of Jamaica Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1761–1768 British MPs 1768–1774 British MPs 1774–1780 18th-century Jamaican judges {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub