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PageSir Richard BULKELEY of Beaumaris and Anglesey, Knight
Born: ABT 1515, Baron Hill, Beaumaris, Anglesey, Wales
Died: 1572
Father: Richard BULKELEY of Beaumaris
Mother: Catherine GRIFFITH
Married 1: Margaret SAVAGE
Children:
1. Richard BULKELEY of Beaumaris (See his Biography)
2. John BULKELEY
3. Thomas BULKELEY
4. Rowland BULKELEY
5. Charles BULKELEY
6. Jane BULKELEY
7. Daniel BULKELEY
8. Margaret BULKELEY
Married 2: Agnes NEEDHAM
Children:
9. Elizabeth BULKELEY
10. Mary BULKELEY
11. Arthur BULKELEY
12. Tristam BULKELEY
13. George BULKELEY
14. Edward BULKELEY
15. Lancelot BULKELEY of Dublin
16. Grissel BULKEKEY
The details in this biography come from the History of Parliament, a biographical dictionary of Members of the House of Commons.
Born by 1524, first son of Sir Richard Bulkeley of Beaumaris by Catherine, dau. of Sir William Gruffydd of Penrhyn, Caern.; bro. of Rowland (d. 1592). Married first Margaret, dau. of Sir John Savage of Clifton; and second, Agnes, dau. of Thomas Needham of Shenton, Salop, and Cranage, Cheshire. Suc. family Jan 1547. Kntd. Oct 1547. Sheriff, Anglesey 1547, 1551-2, 1560-1, 1569-70, Caern. 1549-50, 1557-8; j.p. Anglesey from 1555, custos rot. from 1559 and j.p.q. by 1564; v.-adm. N. Wales by 1551; commr. collection of relief, Anglesey and Caern. 1550, for church goods, Anglesey 1553; dep. constable, Beaumaris castle by 1548-61, capital burgess, Beaumaris 1562; commr. defences of Anglesey 1569, musters, Cheshire 1570.
The heir to extensive estates in Anglesey, Caernarvonshire and Cheshire, Bulkeley increased his family's standing in Anglesey and was instrumental in obtaining a charter of incorporation for Beaumaris in 1562. At the 1570 musters his was the highest assessment in the island. He represented the county in Parliament on four occasions, and in 1571 he was a member of the committee on navigation (8 May).
Although the family had profited from the dissolution of the monasteries, and a relative was the first protestant Bishop of Bangor, a Catholic claim of 1574 that ‘all the Bulkeleys are Catholic’ is supported by Sir Richard's connexions. One of his aunts, Catherine, was the last Abbess of Godstow, and another married Sir William Norreys of Speke. Bulkeley was taken ill early in 1572, and died 7 Sep. According to his heir, Richard, he was poisoned by his second wife, whom the court of arches found had been committing adultery with one William Kenrick who ‘did use to walk under the said Agnes her window in the night time, play upon an instrument and make love to her when Sir Richard was from home in the Parliament’. Poison was found in a chest in her room, under a pair of velvet slippers, but a Beaumaris jury acquitted her of murder.
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