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 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 parliament. ...

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 eight miles (13 km) north-west of Battle and four miles (6 km) west of Robertsbridge. The village lies in the Hig ...

, Sussex, and his wife Elizabeth Rose, daughter of Fulke Rose of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

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

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and was also a student at Leyden 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 judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...

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 (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 A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

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, ...

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 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

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 a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is u ...

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