Thomas Gery Cullum
Encyclopedia
Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, 7th Baronet (30 November 1741 – 8 September 1831) was a medical doctor educated at London Charterhouse
and Trinity College, Cambridge
, and who later practiced surgery at Bury St. Edmunds
, Suffolk
, where he served as an alderman and DL
for Suffolk. Cullum was the son of Sir John Cullum, 5th Baronet, of Hardwick House
, Hardwick, Suffolk.
Sir Thomas Gery Cullum was a well-regarded writer on science and on botany and a fellow of the Royal Society
, Society of Antiquaries of London
and of the Linnaean Society.
Cullum's credentials as a scholar were such that he was recommended as a fellow of the Royal Society in January 1787 along with his fellow scholar James Smithson
, for whom the later Smithsonian Institution
would be named. Cullum also served as Bath King of Arms
from 1771 to 1800. He was succeeded as Bath King of Arms by his son John Palmer Cullum, Esq,, who served from 1800–1829, which meant that between them the pair served for nearly 60 years.
Perhaps the highest compliment paid to Cullum was that from Sir James Edward Smith
, noted English botanist and founder of the Linnaean Society. Smith dedicated his English Flora of 1824 to Cullum thus: "To Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, Bart., whose knowledge and love of natural science entitle him to the respect of all who follow the same pursuit, this work is inscribed in grateful and affectionate remembrance by the Author." Smith's publications had followed a privately printed flora
by Cullum, Floræ Anglicæ Specimen imperfectum et ineditum, 1774, which was based on the Linnean system of classification
Sir Thomas Gery Cullum was married to Mary Hanson of Normanton, West Yorkshire
, daughter of Robert Hanson Esq. and heiress of her brother 'Sir' Levett
Hanson, chamberlain to the Duke of Modena and an authority on European orders of knighthood. Hanson acted as surety for the baptism of his sister's first son John Cullum. (On his death in Copenhagen
without an heir, Hanson left his estate, including portraits and mementoes of the Levett and Gargrave
families of Yorkshire, to his sister.)
Cullum lived at Hardwick House, a Jacobean house
on the site of medieval grazing land for St. Edmundsbury Abbey, which the Cullum family owned from its initial purchase in 1656, by the Royalist
Sir Thomas Cullum, 1st Baronet and former Sheriff of London, until 1921. Natives of Suffolk, the 1st baronet had grown rich as a London draper, then fallen out of favor on Cromwell's rise, but returned to favor on the Restoration, when he was rewarded with a Baronetcy.
The house, which included a Venetian indoor riding school and extensive grounds, was demolished in 1921 when the last of the Cullums, George Gery Milner-Gibson Cullum, grandson of the 8th Baronet and High Sheriff of Suffolk
, died without heirs.
The grounds and site of the formal gardens and statuary today constitute Hardwick Heath (55 acres (222,577.3 m²) of the former Cullum estate turned into public parkland), the West Suffolk Hospital, the grounds of Hardwick Manor and housing developments. The site of Hardwick House itself is a wood bordering some original Cedar and Yew trees.
During the time of their residence at Hardwick House, the Cullum family had maintained an extensive library, and had also taken great interest in the history of the area, including having authored several volumes on the history and antiquities of Hawsted and Hardwick. Following the sale of the Hardwick Estate, most of the Cullum library, the Cullum Collection, was given to the Bury Record Office. An oil portrait descended in the Levett family of Sir Thomas Gargrave
, Speaker of the House of Commons
, was donated to the National Portrait Gallery in London by the last Cullum baronet.
Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, surgeon, botanist, antiquarian, and writer is buried in the church at Hawstead, Suffolk with many of his ancestors and descendants. Few churches in Suffolk have as many monuments to their dead, say scholars, as the church in Hawstead.
Arethusa Susannah, daughter of Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, married Thomas Milner-Gibson
, MP
of Theberton Hall, Suffolk, in 1832.
A genus of flowering plant, Cullumia
, commemorates the contribution of Cullum and his brother.
London Charterhouse
The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Smithfield, London dating back to the 14th century. It occupies land to the north of Charterhouse Square. The Charterhouse began as a Carthusian priory, founded in 1371 and dissolved in 1537...
and Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, and who later practiced surgery at Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds is a market town in the county of Suffolk, England, and formerly the county town of West Suffolk. It is the main town in the borough of St Edmundsbury and known for the ruined abbey near the town centre...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, where he served as an alderman and DL
Deputy Lieutenant
In the United Kingdom, a Deputy Lieutenant is one of several deputies to the Lord Lieutenant of a lieutenancy area; an English ceremonial county, Welsh preserved county, Scottish lieutenancy area, or Northern Irish county borough or county....
for Suffolk. Cullum was the son of Sir John Cullum, 5th Baronet, of Hardwick House
Hardwick House (Suffolk)
Hardwick House was a manor house near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, owned by Sir Robert Drury, Speaker of the House of Commons of Hawstead Place, and subsequently purchased in the seventeenth century by Royalist and former Sheriff of London Robert Cullum...
, Hardwick, Suffolk.
Career
A graduate of Cambridge University, Rev. Sir John Cullum, 6th Baronet (1733-1785), the brother of Thomas Gery Cullum, was referred to as the 'historian of Hawstead', having written several volumes about his Suffolk birthplace. Sir John served as rector of Hawstead, Suffolk, as well as Great Thurlow, Suffolk. Apparently, his brother and successor Thomas shared his literary inclinations, becoming 7th Baronet on his death in 1785.Sir Thomas Gery Cullum was a well-regarded writer on science and on botany and a fellow of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
, Society of Antiquaries of London
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...
and of the Linnaean Society.
Cullum's credentials as a scholar were such that he was recommended as a fellow of the Royal Society in January 1787 along with his fellow scholar James Smithson
James Smithson
James Smithson, FRS, M.A. was a British mineralogist and chemist noted for having left a bequest in his will to the United States of America, to create "an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men" to be called the Smithsonian Institution.-Biography:Not much is known...
, for whom the later Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
would be named. Cullum also served as Bath King of Arms
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
from 1771 to 1800. He was succeeded as Bath King of Arms by his son John Palmer Cullum, Esq,, who served from 1800–1829, which meant that between them the pair served for nearly 60 years.
Perhaps the highest compliment paid to Cullum was that from Sir James Edward Smith
James Edward Smith
Sir James Edward Smith was an English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society.Smith was born in Norwich in 1759, the son of a wealthy wool merchant. He displayed a precocious interest in the natural world...
, noted English botanist and founder of the Linnaean Society. Smith dedicated his English Flora of 1824 to Cullum thus: "To Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, Bart., whose knowledge and love of natural science entitle him to the respect of all who follow the same pursuit, this work is inscribed in grateful and affectionate remembrance by the Author." Smith's publications had followed a privately printed flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
by Cullum, Floræ Anglicæ Specimen imperfectum et ineditum, 1774, which was based on the Linnean system of classification
Sir Thomas Gery Cullum was married to Mary Hanson of Normanton, West Yorkshire
Normanton, West Yorkshire
Normanton is a town and civil parish within the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is northeast of Wakefield and southwest of Castleford, and at the time of the 2001 Census, the population was 19,949.-History:...
, daughter of Robert Hanson Esq. and heiress of her brother 'Sir' Levett
Levett
Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...
Hanson, chamberlain to the Duke of Modena and an authority on European orders of knighthood. Hanson acted as surety for the baptism of his sister's first son John Cullum. (On his death in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
without an heir, Hanson left his estate, including portraits and mementoes of the Levett and Gargrave
Thomas Gargrave
Sir Thomas Gargrave was a Yorkshire Knight who served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1565 and 1569. His principal residence was at Nostell Priory, one of many grants of land that Gargrave secured during his lifetime...
families of Yorkshire, to his sister.)
Jacobean architecture
The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated.-Characteristics:...
on the site of medieval grazing land for St. Edmundsbury Abbey, which the Cullum family owned from its initial purchase in 1656, by the Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
Sir Thomas Cullum, 1st Baronet and former Sheriff of London, until 1921. Natives of Suffolk, the 1st baronet had grown rich as a London draper, then fallen out of favor on Cromwell's rise, but returned to favor on the Restoration, when he was rewarded with a Baronetcy.
The house, which included a Venetian indoor riding school and extensive grounds, was demolished in 1921 when the last of the Cullums, George Gery Milner-Gibson Cullum, grandson of the 8th Baronet and High Sheriff of Suffolk
High Sheriff of Suffolk
This is a list of High Sheriffs of Suffolk. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually by the Crown. He was originally the principal law enforcement officer in the county and presided at the Assizes and other important county meetings...
, died without heirs.
The grounds and site of the formal gardens and statuary today constitute Hardwick Heath (55 acres (222,577.3 m²) of the former Cullum estate turned into public parkland), the West Suffolk Hospital, the grounds of Hardwick Manor and housing developments. The site of Hardwick House itself is a wood bordering some original Cedar and Yew trees.
During the time of their residence at Hardwick House, the Cullum family had maintained an extensive library, and had also taken great interest in the history of the area, including having authored several volumes on the history and antiquities of Hawsted and Hardwick. Following the sale of the Hardwick Estate, most of the Cullum library, the Cullum Collection, was given to the Bury Record Office. An oil portrait descended in the Levett family of Sir Thomas Gargrave
Thomas Gargrave
Sir Thomas Gargrave was a Yorkshire Knight who served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1565 and 1569. His principal residence was at Nostell Priory, one of many grants of land that Gargrave secured during his lifetime...
, Speaker of the House of Commons
Speaker of the British House of Commons
The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...
, was donated to the National Portrait Gallery in London by the last Cullum baronet.
Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, surgeon, botanist, antiquarian, and writer is buried in the church at Hawstead, Suffolk with many of his ancestors and descendants. Few churches in Suffolk have as many monuments to their dead, say scholars, as the church in Hawstead.
Arethusa Susannah, daughter of Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, married Thomas Milner-Gibson
Thomas Milner Gibson
Thomas Milner Gibson PC was a British politician.-Background and education:Thomas Milner Gibson came of a Suffolk family, but was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, where his father was serving as an officer in the army...
, MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
of Theberton Hall, Suffolk, in 1832.
A genus of flowering plant, Cullumia
Cullumia
Cullumia is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family....
, commemorates the contribution of Cullum and his brother.
External links
See also
- List of Old Carthusians
- Hardwick House (Suffolk)Hardwick House (Suffolk)Hardwick House was a manor house near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, owned by Sir Robert Drury, Speaker of the House of Commons of Hawstead Place, and subsequently purchased in the seventeenth century by Royalist and former Sheriff of London Robert Cullum...