2 Feb. 1691–2. He and Father Edward Hall were the first two masters appointed to the new college which was opened by the English jesuits in the Savoy, Strand, London, at Whitsuntide 1687. Pulton gained a wide reputation in consequence of his conference on points of controversy with Dr. Thomas Tenison, incumbent of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury [q. v.] It was held in Long Acre on 29 Sept. 1687 (Dodd, Church Hist. iii. 493). Upon the destruction of the college in the Savoy at the outbreak of the revolution, Pulton flew from London with the intention of crossing to France; but he, Obadiah Walker, and other fugitives were arrested near Canterbury on 11 Dec. 1688, and committed prisoners to the gaol at Feversham, whence they were afterwards removed in custody to London (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 440). Being released, he returned to Liège to complete his theological course. Afterwards he joined the court of James II at St. Germains. In 1690 he was socius to Father Warner, confessor to the king, and subsequently he was attached to the royal chapel. He also accompanied James II on his visit to Ireland in 1690, and served as an army chaplain or missioner there. He died at St. Germains on 5 Aug. 1710.
He was the author of:
- ‘A true and full Account of a Conference held about Religion, between Dr. Tho. Tenison and A. Pulton, one of the Masters in the Savoy; published by authority,’ London, 1687, 4to. To this work the following singular advertisement is prefixed: ‘A. P., having been eighteen years out of his own Country, pretends not yet to any perfection of the English Expression or Orthography; wherefore for the future he will crave the favour of treating with the Dr. in Latine or Greek, since the Dr. finds fault with his English.’ On this Lord Macaulay remarks: ‘His orthography is indeed deplorable. In one of his letters “wright” is put for “write,” “wold” for “would.”’ In a contemporary satire, entitled ‘The Advice,’ is the following couplet:
Send Pulton to be lashed at Busby's school,
That he in print no longer play the fool.In the controversy which ensued Edward Meredith [q. v.], A. Cressener, a schoolmaster in Long Acre, and ‘Mr. H., a divine of the Church of England,’ took part.
- ‘Remarks of A. Pulton, Master in the Savoy, upon Dr. Tho. Tenison's late Narrative,’ London, 1687, 4to.
- ‘A full and clear Exposition of the Protestant Rule of Faith, with an excellent Dialogue, laying forth the large Extent of true, excellent Charity against the uncharitable Papists,’ 4to, pp. 20, sine loco aut anno [1687?] (Jones, Popery Tracts, ii. 321).
- ‘Reflections upon the Author and Licenser of a scandalous Pamphlet, called The Missioners Arts discovered; with the Reply of A. Pulton to a Challenge made him in a Letter prefix'd to the said Pamphlet,’ London, 1688, 4to.
Pulton's account of the conversion in 1682 to the catholic faith of Charles, son of John Manners, first duke of Rutland, remains in manuscript in the Public Record Office, Brussels (Foley, Records, v. 87, 88 n.)
[De Backer's Bibl. de la Compagnie de Jésus, ii. 2134; Foley's Records, v. 301, vii. 618; Jones's Popery Tracts, p. 484; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 174; Patrick's Autobiog. p. 215; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 654.]
PULTON, FERDINANDO (1536–1618), legal author, son of Giles Pulton of Desborough, Northamptonshire, where the family had been settled for fourteen generations, was born at Desborough in 1536. Scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he matriculated on 23 Nov. 1552, he in 1555–6 graduated B.A., being fellow from Lady-day 1556 to Lady-day 1557. Meanwhile on 28 June 1556 he was admitted a commoner at Brasenose College, Oxford. Although admitted on 5 June 1559 to Lincoln's Inn, he, being a Roman catholic, was not called to the bar. His chief occupation was editing the statutes, he being the first private person so employed. He resided at Desborough, and had also a house at Bourton, near Buckingham, where he died on 20 Jan. 1617–18. His remains were interred in Desborough church. Shortly before his death Pulton presented to Christ's College, Cambridge, a copy of Robert of Gloucester's ‘Chronicle,’ ‘for the love and affection which he did bear to the said college, his nurse and schoolmistress, and in token of goodwill to the said house.’ An elegy upon him is among the poems of his friend, Sir John Beaumont. He left a widow, four sons (two of whom became Roman catholic priests), and two daughters. One of his sons, Thomas Pulton, alias Underhill, was among the jesuits discovered in Lord Shrewsbury's house at Clerkenwell in March 1627–8.
Pulton's compilations of statute law, all of which were published in London, are entitled as follows:
- ‘An Abstract of all the Penal Statutes which be general, wherein is contained the effect of all those Statutes which do threaten the offenders thereof the loss of life, member, lands, goods, or other punishment, or forfeiture whatsoever,’ 1579 and 1586, 4to.
- ‘A Kalender, or Table,
