The Twickenham Museum
People : Lawyers and Clergy

Dr William Fuller
Royalist schoolmaster and Bishop of Lincoln
1608 - 1675

Samual Pepys at his desk

Schoolmaster in Twickenham

As an ardent Royalist, Fuller was deprived of employment during the Commonwealth. He was a friend of both Evelyn and Samuel Pepys who described him as "one of the comeliest and most becoming prelates he ever saw".

According to Pepys, Fuller worked in Twickenham as a schoolmaster for two years between 1659 and 1661, to support himself. The house where he stayed and perhaps taught was the precursor of Mount Lebanon, bought by Lord Raby (Earl of Strafford from 1711)in 1701. There is no other record of this school, which may have been a going concern before and after his tenure. Francis Drope (c1629-71) arboriculturist, worked there as an assistant master during this time. Two of the pupils were elder sons of Pepys' cousin, Edward Montagu, later 1st Earl of Sandwich. Edward and Sydney were often in the care of Pepys who, on occasion, brought them to Dr Fuller's himself.

The Revd William Wyatt (1622/3-85), schoolmaster also taught at the school.

Lord Raby's (Mount Lebanon)

A neighbour, Edward Birkhead owned a house described in the 1661 Survey of the parish as "the new house the French schoolmaster now dwells in." It was a substantial property and it is tempting to associate him in some way with Dr Fuller's establishment.

However, Dr Fuller's house was actually owned by Captain Ell and later by Henry Plumptre (or Plumbtree) who sold it to Lord Raby in 1701 following occupation by Lady Ashe.

Bishop of Lincoln

At the Restoratiom he was appointed Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Bishop of Limerick in 1664 and Bishop of Lincoln in 1667.

Further reading:

Dictionary of National Biography
Samuel Pepys, Diaries, 1660-1669
Arthur Bryant, Pepys - The Man in the Making, Panther, 1984

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