Timothy graduated B.A. from Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1656–7, M.A. 1660, was incorporated in that degree at Oxford on 9 July 1661, and proceeded B.D. in 1667 and D.D. in 1673. In 1657 he was elected fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and on 12 Feb. 1658 was admitted student of Gray's Inn. He soon abandoned law for the church, and on 11 July 1671 was presented to the living of Sacomb, Hertfordshire. On 23 Sept. 1679 he received in addition the rectory of St. Mary-le-Bow, London, where he died and was buried in the autumn of 1693, his successor being appointed on 21 Nov. On 23 Dec. 1676 he was licensed to marry Alice Codrington, spinster, of Kingston, Surrey. His son William graduated B.C.L. from Hart Hall, Oxford, on 29 Nov. 1704, aged 18, and was presented in 1724 to the rectory of Yattendon, Berkshire, which he held till his death in 1735; fine crayon drawings of him and his sister are at Yattendon rectory.
Puller was author of ‘The Moderation of the Church of England,’ London, 1679, 8vo. It advocates the claims of the Anglican church as a via media between popery and puritanism; it is ‘a calm and argumentative statement of the views of the church as conclusively set forth in her liturgy, articles, and homilies’ (Church of England Quarterly Rev. January 1844, pp. 222–7). This book was reprinted, with introduction, notes, &c., by the Rev. Robert Eden, vicar of Wymondham, Norfolk, 1843, 8vo (another edit. 1870). An abridged edition was published in 1818 by the Rev. Daniel Campbell, vicar of Buckland, as ‘The Church her own Apologist,’ and chapter xi. (section 4 to the end) was printed in ‘Tracts of the Anglican Fathers,’ 1841–2, iii. 301–10.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, and Gray's Inn Reg. p. 285; Wood's Fasti, ii. 250; Newcourt's Repert. i. 440; Chester's Westminster Abbey Reg.; Chauncy's Hertfordshire, p. 336; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, ii. 147, 149, 428; Official Returns of Members of Parliament; Allibone's Dict. of English Lit.]
PULLING, ALEXANDER (1813–1895), serjeant-at-law and legal author, was the fourth son of George Christopher Pulling, who retired from the naval service with the rank of post-captain and the reputation of a gallant officer. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Moser of Kendal, Westmoreland. He was born at the Court House, St. Arvans, Monmouthshire, on 1 Dec. 1813, and educated at a private school at Llandaff and at the Merchant Taylors' School, which he entered in April 1829. He was admitted on 30 Oct. 1838 a member of the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar on 9 June 1843. He went, first, the western, and afterwards the South Wales circuit, where he became a leader. While yet in his pupilage he published ‘A Practical Treatise on the Laws, Customs, and Regulations of the City and Port of London’ (London, 1842; 2nd edit. 1849), in which he not only concentrated a vast amount of previously inaccessible legal and antiquarian lore, but sketched a bold scheme of metropolitan municipal reform, which in essential particulars anticipated that embodied in the Local Government Act of 1888. In November 1853 he gave evidence before the royal commission on the state of the corporation of London (Parl. Papers H. C. 1854, vol. xxvi.); and in 1855 he was appointed senior commissioner under the Metropolitan Management Act of that year. He frequently represented the city both in court and before parliamentary committees.
Pulling was an energetic member of the Society for Promoting the Amendment of the Law and of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, and a principal promoter and original member of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting. He advocated the payment of jurors, the relief of parliament by the transference of private-bill business to local authorities (see his article on that subject in Edinburgh Review, January 1855), and the supersession of election petitions by a system of scrutiny as of course. In 1857 he was appointed revising barrister for Glamorgan, and in 1864 was made a serjeant-at-law. From 1867 to 1874 he resided at Newark Park, near Wootton-under-Edge, was in the commission of the peace for Gloucestershire, and took an active part in local administration, acting frequently as deputy county-court judge and commissioner of assize under the Welsh circuit commission. He died on 15 Jan. 1895.
Pulling married, on 30 Aug. 1855, Elizabeth, fourth daughter of Luke Hopkinson, esq., of Bedford Row, Middlesex, by whom he had issue two sons.
Pulling was one of the last surviving members of the Ancient Order of Serjeants-at-Law, of which he wrote the history. His work ‘The Order of the Coif’ (London, 1884, 8vo) is a curious and entertaining contribution to our legal antiquities. His other writings, all of which appeared in London, are as follows: 1. ‘A Practical Compendium of the Law and Usage of Mercantile Accounts,’ 1846, 8vo. 2. ‘Observations on the Disputes at present arising in the Corporation of London,’ 1847, 8vo. 3. ‘A Summary of the Law of Attorneys and Solicitors,’ 1849, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1862. 4. ‘The Law of Joint
