William Cullen

  Noted events in his life were:

• source. Mary-Ann Cook & http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=foxwf60 which lists many more descendants of William and Ann & where it is written:
During a week long visit to the Somerset Record Office in July 2006 with a lot of help we were able to fill in some of the details of William Cullen's life. In the "Hue and Cry" , the Police gazette, on the 27th January 1827 there was an entry refering to a William Culling of Long Sutton who had absconded from his regiment, the 1st Foot Guards on 26th December 1826 from London. After an extensive search of Long Sutton and the surrounding villages we believe that our William Cullen is this individual. Indeed this would explain the six year gap in the baptisms of his children and the fact that we know he had a son William in this period but there is no Somerset baptism. Also the Hue and Cry gives William's height as 5 feet 11. 1/4 inches which is extremely tall for this era and we have learnt from the Wilton gaol records that the Cullens were all very tall. Indeed William's nephew James at 6ft .1 1/2 inches was the tallest in the gaol over a 20 year period. Also William Cullen's cousin Gilbert Cullen was 5 ft 10.1/2 inches tall and also served in the Foot Guards, making the case even stronger.
A possible motive for absconding from his regiment is that fact that his brother George Cullen had on 3rd June 1825 been convicted of smuggling eight gallons of brandy and gin and sentenced to gaol until the astronomical fine of one hundred pounds was paid. By 1826 George's family with four young children could well have been in difficulty and maybe this prompted their uncle William to desert. Indeed it has been suggested that the only chance for the large fine to be paid might have been for William to take up his brother's smuggling activities. On this tack the Record Office staff found a book "Smuggling in the Bristol Channel" by Graham White", which contained the following passage "....one such smuggling cutter that caused the customs grave concern was the FOX of 90 tons captained by William Cullen of Rush, who was considered - a most notorious smuggler. Despite several close shaves it was never captured" They were unable to find a Somerset placename Rush but in their main Somerset Gazetteer there was only Rush Hill near Bath and Rushley in High Ham. High Ham is of course our William Cullen's birthplace. Smuggler George Cullen was released and the large fine paid exactly one month after William absconded from his regiment so it seems the Cullen family came into a lot of money during this month.
We cannot prove these associations one hundred percent but it must be said they present an extremely strong circumstantial case.
1851 census entry
No 95, Pitney
William CULLEN Head Mar 59 Shoemaker Low Ham
Ann CULLEN Wife Mar 53 Straw Bonnet Maker Pitney
Meriah? CULLEN Dau Wid 27 Glover Low Ham
George CULLEN Son 15 Labourer Pitney
James CULLEN Son 11 Labourer Pitney
Sarah CULLEN Dau 07 Pitney
Mary CULLEN GrandDau 03 Pitney
Elizabeth CULLEN Dau 20
Note: (Medical):When he absconds from his regiment there is given the following description of William Cullen. 5ft 11.1/4 inches tall, a slender person, oval head, round face, grey eyes, light eyebrows, common nose and mouth, long neck, light hair, square shoulders, proportionate arms, hands, legs and feet.

William married Ann Bartlett, daughter of John Bartlett and Mary Lavis, on 8 Jul 1819. (Ann Bartlett was born in 1800 in Pitney, Somerset England, christened on 2 Feb 1800, died in Apr 1869 in Pitney, Somerset England and was buried on 29 Apr 1869 in Pitney, Somerset England.)