ORIGIN OF NAME

This ancient house, as far as we have authentic evidence, dates from the time of King Edward the Confessor, when Ligulf was Lord of Bulmer, Co. York.

We do not think that, at that period, the Bulmers sprang suddenly, into notoriety, as did many heads of families who followed in the train of William the Norman, but, rather, that they sprang from Saxon Thanes, or were of Scandinavian origin.

As to the origin of the name, "Bulmer", some authorities are of the opinion that it is purely Scandinavian.

Bulwer Lytton, in a note on Chap. VII, Vol. II of "Harold", says "Bulmer is a Norwegian name, and so is Bulver, and Bolvar, which is, indeed, so purely Scandinavian, that it is one of the warlike names given to Odin himself by the North Scalds. Bulverhithe still commemorates the landing of a Norwegian son of the War God. The learned Philologist, the Rev. Dr. Skeat, Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Cambridge University, says that "The name, Bulmer is the same as the Anglo-Saxon Bulemaer, (in modern spelling, pronounced bully-mare). In later English the middle e would drop, and the word be pronounced as bull-mare. The Anglo-Saxon Bulmaer occurs in a place-name Bulmaeresthorn, printed in a Charter, in Vol. III, of Kemble's "Anglo-Saxon Charters". It means "Bulemaer's thorn tree".

Bulemaeres is the genitive case, from a noun, Bulemaer. Bule is the modern English "Bull", Maer is the short form of Maere, a word meaning illustrious, or famous. So that Bull-maer means "Famous Bull"; it may also be considered partly Scandinavian, as the word "Bull" is Scandinavian. The word for "Bull" in Anglo-Saxon was fearr, which was entirely superseded by the Norse, boli, a bull, written bule in Anglo-Saxon.

The Bulmer family are supposed to be descendants of the old Norse Vikings.

Respecting Odin, his ancestry, and warlike prowess, we have the following information from Plantagenet Harrison's "History of the Wapentake of Gilling-west, North Yorkshire", published in 1879. The Author of this Work also claims to be descended from the same stock, through the ancient line of the Kings of Scandinavia, styling himself "in right of blood, Prince of Plantagenet Skioldungur" which means legitimate prince of the legitimate blood-royal of England and Scandinavia, etc. He also claimed to be Duke of Lancaster, as heir of the whole blood of King Henry VI. Odin, the great Scandinavian War God, was King of Asgardia, and lived 76 years before the birth of Christ. He was forty-first in descent from Eric, King of the Goths, in Scandinavia in the time of Serug, the great-grandfather of Abraham, the ancestor of the Jews.

The fourth son of Odin was Balder (We assume Balder to be synonymous with Bolvar), King of the Angles, the ancestor of the Saxons, and also of the late Prince Albert of England.

Odin came out of Scythia with a great Army of Goths, and, after conquering the Northern parts of Europe, settled in Sweden, where he built the City of Seguntum, and reigned there until his death. In his time, the first migration of the Goths took place, out of Scandinavia. His name having become so famous, he was, for many ages afterwards, worshipped with divine honours, by the Northern Nations as "God of Battles".

At Darlington, in Durham, there is a large block of stone, called the "Bulmer Stone". Nothing is known of the history of this monument, except that it is of the highest antiquity. One can only conjecture that it may have been a memorial of one of this race of warriors, or an altar to the god, Bolvar.

The Bulmers were, originally, lords of Bulmer, Co. York, situated about six miles southwest of Malton, and which gives name to the Wapentake of Bulmer.

They were of great reputation, and had large estates in the Counties of Durham and Yorkshire. Though the family owned the Manor of Wilton-in-Cleveland, at an early date, its influence was felt more in Durham, as it owned the lordship of Brancepeth, which contained 4,600 acres, and the Castle situated about 4 miles south-west of the City of Durham was its feudal residence.

Brancepeth Castle was erected by the Bulmers, AD 1135-1154, and appears to have originally consisted of four quadrangular towers with projecting angles, or buttresses, surmounted by turrets, intermediate walls, loop-holes, and battlements, connecting the whole structure, which was strongly fortified and surrounded with a moat.

Leland, the Antiquary, says that "It was strongly set and builded, and hath two courtes of high buildings. There is a little moat that hemmith a greate piece of the first courte. In this courte be three towers of logginge, and three smaul adoriaments. The pleasure of the Castle is in the 2 courte and entering into it by a greate toure. I saw in schochin (escutcheon) in the front of it a lion rampant. On the south-weste part of the castelle cometh down a little bek out of the rokkes and hills not far off."

Hutchinson says that "It is necessary to observe one matter which points out the great antiquity of this castle, and that is, that our records furnish us with no license for fortifying and embattling; which is not the case of any other in the County except Barnard Castle."

The walls of this stately pile rise from a rocky precipice nearly forty feet in height, at the foot of which winds a rivulet; the situation and irregularity of the edifice give it a most romantic appearance.

The name of "Brancepeth" is popularly supposed to be derived from "Brawnspath". Surtees, in his "History of Durham" says that "The Boar, or Brawn, of Brancepeth, was a formidable animal and walked the Forest in undisputed sovereignity, from the Wear to the Gamless. The marshy and, then, woody vale, extending from Croxdale to Ferry-wood, was one of the Brawn's favourite haunts, affording roots and mast, and the luxurious pleasures of volutation. Near Cleeves Cross, Hodge, of Ferry, after carefully marking the Boar's track, dug a pitfall, and, then toling on his treacherous victim to the spot, stood, armed with his good sword, across the pitfall. At length the gallant brute came trotting on his onward path, and seeing the passage barred, rushed headlong on the vile pitfall." At Ferry-hill near Merrington, Co. Durham, there is still to be seen an old gray stone, supposed to be the remnant of the Cross, on the hill, near the farm of Cleeves-Cross, which is said to commemorate the adventure of Roger de Fery, whose posterity occur in the Freehold Records, as late as the year, 1617.

The Lordship of Brancepeth passed by the marriage of Emma, daughter and heir of Bertram de Bulmer, (a Baron temp. King John) to Geoffrey Neville. He was the fourth in descent from Richard de Neuville, or Nova Villa, cousin of the Conqueror. Geoffrey then became a resident at Brancepeth Castle. His only daughter and heir, Isobel de Nevill, married Robert Fitz-Maldred, Lord of Raby, Co. Durham, whose descendants assumed the name of Nevill, and are known to history as distinguished Nobles and Warriors.

In the year 1398, Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmoreland is said to have rebuilt much of Brancepeth Castle.

At Raby Castle there is the Bulmer Tower, and near the top of the tower are two large Bs for Bulmer, cut in the stone. Over the gate-way of the farm-yard, which is divided from the Castle by an embattled screen, is an ancient sculpture of a bull bearing an ensign with the arms of Nevill. This was removed from Bulmer's Tower. In the "House of Nevill", it states that "The crest of the Nevills, of Raby, appears in the fourteenth century as a Bull's Head." Planche' considers it an adaptation of the badge of the Bulmer family, (a pied or dun bull) in honour of their Bulmer descent.

This lordship continued in the possession of the Earls of Westmoreland till the Rebellion, temp. Queen Elizabeth, when the castle and lordship became forfeited, and vested in the Crown by a special Act. In the reign of Chas. I they were sold under the authority of Letters Patent, to Lady Middleton and others. Three years afterwards they were made over to Ralph Cole, Esq., of Newcastle, in trust for his son, Nicholas Cole, Esq. (who was created a baronet in 1640).

His son Sir Ralph Cole, Bart. in consideration of the sum of £16,000, and annuities on the lives of himself and wife, conveyed the castle and lordship to Sir Henry Bellasyse, Knt., whose grand-daughter, dying in 1774, devised them to the Earl of Fauconberg.

Soon afterwards the Earl sold them to John Tempest, Esq., of him the estate was purchased by the late William Russell, Esq., in 1796 for £75,000. He died in 1817; and his son Mathew, (considered the richest Commoner in England) whilst engaged in restoring his Castle to its ancient extent and magnificence died in 1822. "The marriage in 1828, of Emma Marie, daughter of Mathew Russell, M.P., with Gustavus Frederick Hamilton, eldest son of the sixth Viscount Boyne, secured for this noble building, a continuation of loving care."

Billings says that "Brancepeth Castle stands superior to any battlemented edifice in the North of England."

After the intermarriage with Nevill, the Bulmers are to be considered rather, as a Yorkshire, than a Durham family; and their chief seat, for several centuries, was at Wilton Castle, near Guisborough, in Cleveland.

There were Lords of Wilton, with its dependent Manors of Lackenby, and Lazingby, also the hamlet of West Coatham, at an early period, one moiety of which lands according to Kirkby's "Inquest", was held by John de Bulmer, under Ranulphus de Mennel, as of the fee of Peter de Mauley; and another part of the estate was held by John de Percy, of the King "In Capite"; of whom the said John de Bulmer had half a Knight's fee in Wilton and West Coatham, where ten Carucates made one knight's fee (A Carucate was equal to 120 acres in the year 1311).

Ralph de Bulmer obtained a charter of all his lands there.

In 1331, he had special license to make a Castle of his Manor House at Wilton, and was made Sheriff of Yorkshire, and Governor of the Castle of York, in 1327.

The Inquisitions and Eschaets, temp. Edward III, 1319, assigned to Ralph Bulmer the following estates, viz.: Attringwiske, Wilton-in-Cleveland, Longbergh-Wapp-redd, Lakenbye, West-Cotum, Pinchingthorpe, Thorpe-Juxta-Killam, Lasingbie, East Cotum, Upsall Parva, Bulmer-in-Welborne, Boythorpe, Thorneton-Rishborough, Kirby Misperton, Bergh; also Nesbit, Thorpe-Bulmer, Preston, Symonside, Libertas Dunelm.

Wilton Castle continued to be the seat and inheritance of the family until the Attainder of Sir John Bulmer, Knt., in 1537, for High Treason.

Sir Francis Madden in his "Collectanes Topographica et Genealogia", Vol. III, fol. 144 says that "John Scott, Esq., Lord of the Manor of Camberwell, Surrey, together with the Lords Ogle, Howard, Sir Mathew Browne, and Sir William Bulmer, were brought into the Star Chamber, for divers riots, misdemeanors and offences, by them committed". It appears that they were all pardoned, save the Lord Ogle, whose case being murder, he was remitted to the common law.

Early in the 16th century the chief male heir, after the ruin of the elder branch of the family, acquired a considerable estate within the Bishopric of Durham by marriage with Elizabeth, daughter and heir of William Elmeden, Esq., of Elmeden and Tursdale, Co. Durham and his descendants will be found In the Account of "Tursdale".

Wilton Castle was granted temp. Phillip and Mary, to Sir Thomas Cornwallis, whose descendant, Lord Cornwallis, sold the estate to Sir Stephen Fox, afterwards Earl of Ilchester, of whom it was purchased by the Trustees under the will of Robert Lowther, Esq., of Maul's Meburn, for the benefit of his son, afterwards the Earl of Lonsdale, and by him bequeathed to Sir John Lowther, of Swillngton Hall, near Leeds, in whose family it still remains. From a description of the Castle in 1821, it states that "till within these few years, there were some remains of its former grandeur, but the tower being ruinous, it was taken down and a new edifice, in the same style of building, erected on its site, by the present proprietor.

Near the centre of the village of Wilton are the remains of St. Helen's Chapel, founded, according to Torr, "by Sir Wm. Bulmer 23. Henry VIII, for two priests to say Mass for the souls of him and his wife, with stipends, one £4.10, and the other £4.0.0 per Annum, to be paid by the Churchwarden's of Kirkleatham, out of lands for that purpose; and also for the support of 4 poor men and 4 poor women."

Graves, speaking of this Chapel, which was in ruins, says that "Over the entrance of the building is the figure of a man's head, on one side of which is a bull, in an erect posture; and on the other side, an animal now much defaced, which was probably a mare, forming a monkish device of the name of Bulmer."

Ord, writing in 1846 says that "The Chapel at Wilton, an ancient edifice, dedicated to St. Cuthbert, is situated on a retired plot of grounds about a stone's throw from the Castle. The porch is early Norman. One large slab of marble within the chancel marks the resting place of some forgotten member of the Bulmer family, the brass plate from which, as too frequently happens, has been torn off by profane and sacrilegious hands. Two noble effigies of the Bulmers, male and female, stand exposed to all varieties of the seasons against the south wall of the church, a mournful monument of the uncertainty of human grandeur."