John Bull (June 1, 1731 - August 9, 1824) politician, military officer, statesman, and planter. Initially, his military career started under John Forbes in the Forbes Expedition during the 1750s. During the American Revolution, he was a delegate in the Pennsylvania Provincial Conference which declared Pennsylvania independent from the British Colonies. Benjamin Franklin and Bull sat on many committees together. Bull was a very active participant in many different roles during the revolution. He was mainly in charge of the defenses of Fort Billingsport. He held the rank of Colonel in Pennsylvania's 2nd Regiment and eventually rose to the rank of Adjutant General of the Pennsylvania Militia by the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council in defense of Philadelphia during the Philadelphia campaign.
Bull was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania where he was raised on a farm. By 1758, he participated in the French and Indian War as a captain where he met George Washington and the two became friends. During the 1760s he was involved in local politics. In 1770, Benjamin Rittenhouse married Bull's oldest daughter Elizabeth. Bull became good friends with his brother American astronomer David Rittenhouse. During the revolution, George Washington visited Bull's Masonic Lodge while he was in Valley Forge. Bull was attending as the Worshipful Master of the lodge. After the British evacuated Philadelphia Bull continued to proved defense to the city. Bull's son-in-law Benjamin was superintendent of the gunlock factory in Pennsylvania. After the American Revolution while he was in his seventies he briefly held the position of Pennsylvania assemblyman.
History
Bull was born in Providence Township, Philadelphia County now called Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Thomas Bull and Elizabeth Rossiter. His mother died at 92 years old and his father died in 1747. He had two brothers and a sister William, Thomas, and Elizabeth Betson. John married a Welsh woman named Mary Phillps on August 13, 1752. Bull participated in the taking of Fort Duquesne as a captain along with George Washington and other troops under the direction of General Forbes around May 12, 1758. By 1761, he became a justice of the peace in Philadelphia, and by 1768 he was justice of the Court of quarter sessions in the same county. By 1771, he was in possession of 534 acres in Norristown, PA. At the onset of the American Revolution, he actively participated and eventually reached the rank of General.
In 1774 he was a member of the Committee of Inspection in his county. The American Revolution started to impact different parts of the country and Bull became actively involved, He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania Provincial Conference of January 18, 1775, which declared the independence of Pennsylvania from the British Colonies. Bull was also a colonel of the First Pennsylvania Battalion of the Continental Troops from November 25, 1775, to January 20, 1776. He was also a member of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1776 which had a profound impact on American public opinion and cleared the way for the issuing of the Declaration of Independence. In July, he was colonel of the Sixth Associator's Battalion of the State and a member of the Council of Safety of the State. He later became a justice of the peace.
By September 1776, he was appointed general superintendent of the construction of defenses at Fort Billingsport. Billingsport was a crucial defense. On January 20, 1777, he was a commissioner to sign a peace treaty with the Indians at Easton, Pennsylvania. By February 1777, he was in charge of the defenses at Fort Billingsport. He was also active in local Pennsylvania politics as an assemblyman and also briefly served on the Board of War. Because of the active war, Bull took many government positions. By May 1777, he was in charge of the Pennsylvania State Regiment, and on the 16th of July of that year, he was appointed adjutant general of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia was occupied by the British during the Philadelphia campaign on around August 25, 1777, Fort Billingsport also fell.