Eccentrics

Britain has its fair share of eccentrics and I thought I'd share the stories of one or two. This is 'Mad Jack' Fuller..

            Jack Fuller, later to become “Mad Jack”, was born on 20^th February 1757, in North Stoneham in Hampshire. He was christened in the village of Waldron in Sussex. At the age of 10 he began his education at Eton. On 7^th May 1777 Fuller’s uncle; Rose Fuller MP died, leaving Jack his Sussex Estates and Jamaican plantations. So he took possession of the Rose Hill estate (now Brightling Park), in Sussex.

            In 1801 “Mad Jack”, or “Honest Jack” as he preferred to be called, was MP for Rose Hill (now Brightling). His political behaviour was fiery to say the least. Several times he reduced Parliament to chaos and had to be forcibly removed. One such incident was when he referred to the Speaker as “the insignificant little fellow in the wig”. Fuller’s removal from the premises cannot have been an easy task; he was a large man (22 stone) and was nicknamed ‘Hippo’.

            For all the chaos he caused, he was by most accounts a pleasant man; he had a good sense of humour and no pretentions. On the offer of a peerage he is reported to have said “...I was born Jack Fuller, and Jack Fuller I will die”.

            He loved Rose Hill and commissioned Turner to paint five pictures of the area. During the time he was MP (1801-1812) unemployment was high and Jack had walls built on his estate that he didn’t really need, just to provide work for the local people.

            However, he is best remembered for his love of follies. He built a domed rotunda and a ‘hermit’s’ tower on his estate. Perhaps his most well-know construction was the “Brightling Needle, a 65 foot high obelisk, which is still a landmark in Sussex today. The Sugar Loaf Folly at Dallington was built as a result of a bet Fuller made with his neighbour. Fuller wagered that he could see the conical spire of Dallington church from his window at Rose Hill. When he returned home he found this not to be the case. In keeping with his jolly sense of humour he built a 40 foot replica on a nearby hill, to give the illusion of a half viewed church.

            His masterpiece though was the pyramidal mausoleum he had built for himself, in Brightling church yard. It was designed after the fashion of Sir Robert Smirke, the architect of the British Museum. The reason that he declined conventional burying is logical, if a little eccentric. He believed that he would be eaten by his ‘relatives’ ‘...the worms’. His argument was that the worms would eat him, the ducks would eat the worms and his relatives would eat the ducks.

            It was said that Jack could be found in an armchair, surrounded by broken glass, holding a bottle of claret. He did this in case the devil came for him, so that he would at least cut his feet.

            Jack Fuller then was by all accounts a pleasant and entertaining character and perhaps his small eccentricities are endearing rather than ridiculous