her sister (Pepys's Diary, p. 532, Chandos ed.), when she was pronounced very handsome. She married Henry Bulkeley, fourth son of Thomas, the first viscount Bulkeley of Baron Hill, near Beaumaris (Collins's Peerage, viii. 15), master of the household to Charles II and James II (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. i. 69), and brother of Richard Bulkeley, d. 1650 [q. v.] This marriage placed Sophia about the court, and was followed by her election to the office of lady of the bedchamber to James II's queen. About 1680 it was thought that Godolphin was enamoured of her, a report referred to in a line of a satire published in that year, ‘Bulkeley's Godolphin's only care;’ and an entry in the ‘Treasury Order Book’ at the Customs, D. 352, F. 303, under ‘Buckley,’ shows some payment to her (ib.) during a stay she was making in France. In 1688 she is thought to have been with the queen at the birth of the young James, prince of Wales, the ground for this being a satire, ‘The Deponents,’ in which there is a passage—
Then painted B——ley early in the morn,
Came to St. James's to see his highness born;
With all the haste she could she up did rise,
Soon dress'd, and came by nine a clock precise, &c.
(State Poems, iii. 260–1.)
Another report concerning her was that she was put into the Bastille, after the flight of James and his queen to Versailles, for correspondence with Godolphin (Granger, supra, quoting from Dalrymple's Memorials, pt. ii. p. 189). She had six children. Of three of these nothing is recorded; of the others, James became a resident in France, and left a family there; Charlotte married Daniel, viscount Clare, of Ireland; and Ann married James, duke of Berwick, the natural son of James II.
In Bromley's ‘Cat. of Engraved Portraits,’ p. 109, there is mention of a portrait of Sophia Bulkeley by Gascar, a French painter who came over to England in the train of La Querouaille, duchess of Portsmouth (Pilkington, Lives of Painters). The date is put 1761, a typographical error for 1716, about which date it is probable that Sophia Bulkeley died.
[Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. i. 69; Collins's Peerage of England, ed. 1812, viii. 15; Poems on Affairs of State, iii. 260–1; Granger's Biog. Hist. ed. 1775, iv. 184; Bromley's Catalogue of Engraved Portraits, p. 109.]
BULKLEY, CHARLES (1719–1797), baptist minister, the fourth son of Thomas Bulkley, silk mercer in Ludgate Street, and Esther, fourth daughter of Matthew Henry, the commentator, was born in London 18 Oct. 1719. His early education was under Lancaster, a clergyman at Chester. He was trained for the ministry under Doddridge, whose Northampton academy he entered in 1736. His first settlement was with the presbyterian congregation at Welford, Northamptonshire. From this he soon removed to Colchester, where he made no long stay. Under the influence of John Ashworth, brother of Caleb Ashworth [q. v.], he embraced the views of the general or Arminian baptists, went to London, and was immersed. Ashworth had been minister of the baptist congregation at White's Alley, Little Moorfields; in 1743 Bulkley was the successful candidate (in competition with Richard Baron [q. v.]) for that office, but he soon removed to a more prominent position, and Bulkley, in 1745, succeeded James Foster [q. v.] at the Barbican, carrying with him his congregation from White's Alley. Some years later, when Foster retired (January 1752) from the Sunday evening lectureship at the Old Jewry, Bulkley again succeeded him. This says much for his repute; yet it was as a thinker, not as an orator, that Bulkley shone. He came round, after Foster's death, to the more liberal view of the eucharistic ordinance known as 'mixt communion,' and was taken to task for it by Grantham Killingworth, a leading general baptist layman of Norwich. He is reported to have had a crowded audience at the Old Jewry for some few years. In 1779 the general baptist cause in London was declining. Bulkley's congregation associated with three others in building a small meeting-house in Worship Street, Finsbury (removed 1878; congregation now at Bethnal Green). With two exceptions, all of Bulkley's publications were issued before this removal. His 'Notes' on Bolingbroke's philosophical writings (begun in the 'Evening Advertiser,' April to September 1754) attracted some attention, but are now forgotten. He pursued the active exercise of his ministry till his death, though paralysis in 1795 shattered his health and affected his speech. Bulkley died on 15 April 1797, and was buried on 25 April in the graveyard behind the meeting-house in Worship Street. He married in 1749 Ann Fiske, of Colchester (died August 1783), but had no issue. He published: 1. 'A Vindication of my Lord Shaftesbury, on the subject of Ridicule,' &c., 1751, 4to (in reply to John Brown, 1715-1766 [q. v.]) 2. 'A Vindication of my Lord Shaftesbury, on the subjects of Morality and Religion, &c.,' 1752, 4to (continuation of the preceding). 3. 'Discourses,' 1752, 8vo (fifteen in number; reissued 1760). 4. 'Notes on the Philosophical Writings of Lord Bolingbroke. In Three Parts,' &c., 1755, 8vo. 5. 'On the Earthquake at Lisbon,' 1756, 8vo. 6. 'The
