BULLINGHAM, Francis (1554-1633), of Cathedral Close, Lincoln, Lincs.

Bullingham’s family originated in Worcester, where his grandfather was a leading member of the corporation, and his uncle Richard was returned for the city in 1559. Vis. Worcs. (Harl. Soc. xxvii), 126. The connection with Lincolnshire was established by this Member’s father, who served as bishop of Lincoln for 11 years before translating to his native diocese in 1571. Oxford DNB sub Bullingham, Nicholas Bullingham himself was granted a reversion to the post of bishop’s registrar while he was still a student at Cambridge, and when it fell in ten years later he settled in Lincoln as a notary public. He probably became principal registrar on the retirement of Thomas Taylor in 1593, and in 1595 supplemented this with the post of sub-collector of clerical subsidies. Lincs. AO, Bif/2/4, ff. 31-2, Bif/3/17, ff. 21-2; Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. lii), 950. Bullingham’s father died leaving debts, and his own ‘bad courses of gaming, banqueting, epicurism and unthriftiness’ led him deeper into financial disaster. It was perhaps with the aim of avoiding his creditors that Bullingham ‘made suit’ to Lincoln corporation for a seat in the 1601 Parliament, ‘wherewith they [were] well pleased’. HMC 14th Rep. VIII, 76; J.W.F. Hill, Tudor and Stuart Lincoln, 74.

Bullingham was returned for Boston in 1604 and sworn in as a freeman without payment. J.K. Gruenfelder, ‘Boston’s Early Stuart Elections’, Lincs. Hist. and Arch. xiii. 47. He was among those appointed to consider bills for the recovery of fenlands (12 May 1604) and for the maintenance of husbandry and tillage (25 May 1604) in the opening session, and to two private bills in the third, one to enable Herbert Pelham* to sell a Lincolnshire manor (20 Feb. 1607) and the other to confirm an exchange of lands between All Souls College and Sir William Smith* (29 Apr. 1607). CJ, i. 207b, 225b, 338a, 364b. By this time Bullingham had built up not only a mountain of personal debt but also a deficit of £6,036 in his accounts for clerical subsidies, which money ought to have been paid into the Exchequer. The outstanding sum was granted to a leading Scottish courtier on 4 Feb. 1607, and in May Bullingham had to claim parliamentary privilege. Ibid. 373b, 379b; C2/Jas.I/B34/4; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 347. On the death of Bishop Barlow he lost his job as collector of clerical subsidies, and the Privy Council ordered proceedings to be started against him, presumably for arrears in his accounts. However, in September 1608 a stay of process was ordered on condition that he repay £3,800 owed to the Crown, in quarterly instalments. CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 460; L.M. Hill, ‘Sir Julius Caesar’s Journal 1608’, BIHR xlv. 326. In the fourth session of Parliament his only committee appointment was to consider messengers’ petitions (17 July 1610). CJ, i. 451a.

Despite his reprieve in 1608, Bullingham’s financial problems grew steadily worse. Having engaged himself as security for Sir Roger Dallison* and his brother Sir Thomas*, he was unable to honour these commitments. On his third marriage he sold his registrarship to his son-in-law for £1,000, reserving to himself an annual income of £600 of the profits for seven years, and thereafter £300 for life. Nevertheless he still owed the Crown £2,400, and by November 1613 he was in the Fleet for debt, where he seems to have remained for the rest of his life. C2/Jas.I/D4/47. As an outlaw, his goods and chattels were granted to John More II* in 1615. C66/2084. He joined in the prisoners’ petition to Parliament against maltreatment by the warden in 1621. A. Harris, Oeconomy of the Fleet ed. A. Jessopp (Cam. Soc. n.s. xxv), 61. Bullingham died intestate and was buried at St. Bride’s, Fleet Street on 18 Nov. 1633. Soc. Gen. ‘Boyd’s London Burials’, MX/R234, p. 74. His only son predeceased him.