Thomas Bull (Pennsylvania politician)

Bull was manager for Potts & Rutter at the Warwick Furnace.^[1][2]

Bull was appointed lieutenant colonel in 1776^[1] and later commissioned as a colonel in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.^[3][2] He was taken prisoner and imprisoned in New Jersey and Long Island.^[1] After returning from the war, he continued to work as a manager at the Warwick Furnace.^[1] He held an interest in Joanna Furnace in Robeson Township, Berks County until about 1831.^[1]

Bull was a delegate to the convention which framed the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 or 1790, sources differ.^[1][3] He served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing Chester County from 1793 to 1801.^[3][4] Around 1810 or 1812, he was associated with the construction of a road from Lancaster Turnpike to Welsh Mountain.^[1]

Bull helped build St. Mary's Church in East Nantmeal (later Warwick Township).^[1]

Bull married Ann Hunter, daughter of John Hunter, of Whiteland on February 28, 1771. She died in 1817. He married Lydia Crowell, a widow, of Cape May, New Jersey, in 1819.^[1] He had eight children, Elizabeth (born 1771), Mary (1774–1798), Ann (1776–1850), Martha (1779–1850), Sarah (1779–1817), Levi (1780–1859), James Hunter (1782–1797) and Margaret (1787–c. 1819).^[1] His son Levi was an Episcopal clergyman and lawyer. His grandson Thomas K. Bull was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.^[3] He lived near Warwick Furnace^[2] and purchased some land from the Warwick Company near the south branch of French Creek.^[1] He was a vestryman of St. Peter's Episcopal Church.^[1]

Bull died on July 13, 1837.^[1] A few years prior to his death, an act of Congress paid Bull an annual pension of US$575 for his service in the Revolutionary War.^[1]