Cuthbert Bullitt
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Cuthbert Bullitt | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Prince William County | |
| In office October 17, 1785 – June 22, 1788 | |
| Preceded by | Alexander Scott Bullitt |
| Succeeded by | Henry Washington |
| In office October 7, 1776 – May 3, 1778 Serving with Jesse Ewell | |
| Succeeded by | Burr Harrison |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1740 |
| Died | 1791 Mount View Plantation Prince William County, Virginia |
| Spouse | Helen Scott |
| Children | 6 (including Alexander Scott Bullitt) |
| Parent(s) | Benjamin Bullitt Elizabeth Harrison |
| Relatives | Thomas Bullitt (brother) |
| Occupation | Lawyer, judge, planter |
Cuthbert Bullitt (c. 1740 – 1791) was an American colonial planter and lawyer from Prince William County, Virginia. During the American Revolution, he was a local and colonial politician, and voted against ratification of the U.S. Constitution at the Virginia Ratification Convention.
Bullitt was born on his parents' plantation in Fauquier County, Virginia, and was descended from French Huguenots.[1] His grandfather, Benjamin Bullett (so spelled at the time), was from Languedoc in southern France, and emigrated across the Atlantic Ocean to escape the religious restriction of Huguenots after the Edict of Fontainebleau. He settled in the Province of Maryland in 1685 and operated a plantation near Port Tobacco in Charles County.[1] His son Benjamin married Elizabeth Harrison, descended from the First Families of Virginia. They had five children, including Cuthbert.[2]
He and his brother, Thomas Bullitt, both settled in Prince William County and became locally prominent—Cuthbert as a planter and lawyer and Thomas as a soldier who commanded local troops westward on military and exploratory journeys.[1]
In 1760 Cuthbert Bullitt married Helen Scott (1739–1795), eldest daughter of Rev. James Scott (d.1782) of Dettingen parish, whose uncle Rev. Alexander Scott (1686–1733) of then-vast Overwharton Parish (now Aquia Church) had received considerable land in Fauquier and Prince William Counties from Lord Fairfax.[3] Although two of her brothers drowned at sea, three continued the Scott family's military and legal traditions. James Scott became a Virginia legislator and Revolutionary soldier; Rev. John Scott (a Maryland Loyalist) later briefly served as rector of Dettingen parish and his son became state senator and judge John Scott (1781–1850): Gustavus Scott would become an early commissioner laying out the new federal city in the District of Columbia further upstream along the Potomac River. The Bullitts had six children: Alexander Scott Bullitt (who also served in the House of Delegates and became a pioneer settler in Louisville, Kentucky), Thomas James, Frances, Sarah, Helen, and Sophia.[1]