It is but forty pounds by yeare for my service heretofore, the mater is not greate, yet it wilbe some releife for my poore childe, hauinge nothinge ells to leave it. The kinge hath bin moved by Sir Ohri. Perkins, who hath order from the kinge to speake with Sir Julio Ceasar. I humbly thanck Sir Julio Cesar, I haue bin with him, and [he] hath promised me his fauor ; but one worde of yours will speade it, and make me and my poore child everlastingly bound to you. I humbly desire you speak in this my humble sute with all the expedition you may, and so with my humble duty remembred I take leaue.' It is not certain to what this letter refers ; the reference to the sum of 40l. has caused it to be conjectured that the post which Bull desired for his child was that which he held at the Chapel Royal, where his annual salary seems to have been the amount named in the letter. If this was the case, and that it was so is in many respects improbable, the request was not granted ; for the next entry respecting Bull in the Chapel Royal cheque book records that ' John Bull, doctor of musicke, went beyond the seas without licence and was admitted into the archduke's service, and entered into paie there about Michaelmas.' On 27 Dec. following, one Peter Hopkins, a bass singer from St. Paul's, was sworn in as gentleman in his place, while his wages from Michaelmas to Christmas, amounting to 9l. 17s., were divided among the members of the chapel. The reason of Bull's taking this step has given rise to various conjectures. In England he was at the height of his profession, and 'was so much admired for his dexterous hand on the organ, that many thought that there was more than man in him.' Wood attributed his sudden departure to his ' being possess'd with crotchets, as many musicians are ; ' but the following extract from a letter (dated 30 May 1614) addressed to James I by the British minister at Brussels (Trumbull) puts a different complexion on the affair : 'Most excellent and most worthy Sovereign, finding, after long attendance by reason of the Archdukes indisposition, that he was now so much amended as he gave access to some ministers of other princes, I procured audience of him on Monday was sennight; and according to your Majesties commandment sent me by Sir Thomas Lake, after I had used some congratulations unto him in your Majesties name for the recovery of his health,—which he seemed to take in very good part, I told him, that I had charge from your Majestie to acquaint him that your Majestie upon knowledge of his receiving Dr. Bull your Majesties organist and sworne servant into his chappel, without your Majesties permission or consent, or once so much as speaking thereof to me, that am resyding here for your Majesties affairs : that your Majesty did justly find it strange as you were his friend and ally, and had never used the like proceeding either towards him or any other foreign prince ; adding, that the like course was not practized among private persons, much less among others of greater place and dignity. And I told him plainly, that it was notorious to all the world, the said Bull did not leave your Majesties service for any wrong done unto him, or for matter of religion, under which fained pretext he now sought to wrong the reputation of your Majesties justice, but did in that dishonest manner steal out of England through the guilt of a corrupt conscience, to escape the punishment, which notoriously he had deserved, and was designed to have been inflicted on him by the hand of justice, for his incontinence, fornication, adultery, and other grievous crimes.' Whatever may have been the actual reason for Bull's flight, there can be no doubt that, like his contemporary William Byrd, he was a catholic. On leaving England he went to Brussels, where he was appointed one of the organists of the Chapel Royal under Gery de Ghersem. In the list of the members of the chapel the names of Juan Zacharias, Pierre Cornet, and Vincentio Guami appear as organists before his ; among the members of the chapel at the same time was another English composer, Peter Phillips [q. v.] In 1617, on the decease of Waelrent, Bull was appointed organist of Antwerp cathedral, and in 1620 he was living in a house next the cathedral on the south side. He died at Antwerp on 12 or 13 March 1628, and on the 15th of the same month was buried in the cathedral, where he was succeeded as organist by H. Liberti. A harpsichord maker of his name flourished at Antwerp towards the end of the eighteenth century, so that it is possible that he may have left a family who settled in the Netherlands.
Bull was not a voluminous composer, and very little of his music has appeared in print. Of his vocal compositions, the earliest printed is a short anthem, 'Attend unto my Teares,' of which two settings occur in Sir William Leighton's 'Teares ; or, Lamentacions of a sorrowful Sovle : composed with Musicall Ayres and Songs, both for Voyces and diuers Instruments' (1614). A collection published by Phalèse at Antwerp in 1629, and entitled 'Laudes Vespertinæ B. Marise Virginis,' contains a hymn for four voices to Flemish words, beginning 'Den lustelijcken Mey.' Barnard's ' Church Musick ' contains an anthem,
