William Bull (governor)

William Bull (1683 – March 21, 1755) was a landowner and politician in the Province of South Carolina.

He served on the governor's council and was lieutenant governor from 1738 to 1755 and acting governor from 1738-44. In 1733 he assisted James Oglethorpe in the founding of the new Province of Georgia, laying out the town of Savannah. His father Stephen Bull was Lord Ashley's deputy and one of the leaders of the expedition which came from England in 1670 and settled Charles Town.

He was married to Mary Quintyne and his descendants include a son, also named William Bull, who was also a South Carolina acting governor, as well as William Henry Drayton and Charles Drayton, sons of his daughter Charlotta Bull and John Drayton. A monument to Governor Bull (c. 1791) is located at Ashley Hall Plantation, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. In the aftermath of the Stono rebellion, Lieutenant Governor William Bull wrote to the British King's Royal Council to inform them about the revolt. In his letter, he describes the "daring" actions of the determined Stono rebels, as well as the measures the militia took to subdue the rebellion. He also proposed that the council employ Indian slave hunters to track down runaway slaves.

4. William Bull to the Royal Council, October 5, 1739, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia.

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