The bull Family Staughton beds (William Bull 1849 - 1870) My 3x great uncle

[Sam Hall]

Hi I see some of you on hear are looking at the Bull family from straughton Beds , well I am related to them and trying to find out all I can on them.
William Bull who you all know for the murder of Sarah Marshall 1870 is the brother of my 2x great gran Ursula Flanders Bull 1847 - 1930 who married my 2x great granddad Jacob Hall 1835 - 1920 and that's where the Hall Family fit in to the Bull family.
What iv noticed none of you have mentioned id that William Bull had already been in trouble before he murdered poor old Sarah Marshall. He had done 14 days hard labour in 1863 aged just 14 years for the rape of ? I don't know but I'm looking into it to see if I can find out any more info . This all so happened in Bedford the trial date 29/09/1863 conviction date 14/03/1863, discharge 26/03/1864
the fist conviction all I know was wilful damage but again to what or whom I don't know as of yet but I do remember being told the family all moved from straughton from the shame of an act of someone who was never talked about and that's how my part of the family came to Peterborough.
Ant info of any kind or help any one can offer would be great , I do have a tree on Ancestry with more info 

[chempat]

Welcome to rootschat, Sam.

Is it just William that you want help with, or some other Bulls also?

Have you looked to see who has Bull in their surname interests (under Your Tools) below, and then tried to make connect with them (You may need to make one more post before you can do that directly)?

[Sam Hall]

hiya its all the Bulls that are related to William Bull I'm looking into ... just been looking at my tree and not all of them left straughton after what William did in 1870 as his sister Ursula meet Jacob Hall my 2x Great granddad in Staughton and if I remmeber rightly it was their son James my great granddad who then moved from straughton I think after he meet and married Emma Smith to Peterborough where I still live now

[stacks]

Hi, I have no connection to the Bull family, but do collect Lace bobbins and I'm sure you know there are bobbins to remember the hanging of William Bull in 1871. I have been doing a bit of research, which is how I came across this chat. There are two ballads in the Bodleian library, the first ,titled, "Horrible outrage and murder at Little Staughton, bedfordshire" in the introduction it says that William Bull had been imprisoned for six months for the rape of a child. The other is titled "the trial and sentence of william bull". The actual ballads are the same for both titles but the introductions differ, the first is written before the trial the second after the trial. Sorry if you already knew this, but if not, search, broadside ballads online, for, "murder and outrage", and "sarah marshall" 

[ArtleknockLass]

Hello there
I am a direct descendant of poor old "Mad Sally" Marshall and scarily enough I share the same name (without the 'Mad' bit  )!!  We were totally unaware of this grisly tale until I started doing the family tree about three years ago.
Sally (or Sarah) was the sister of my 3xG Grandfather Thomas Marshall.
Weirdly enough, William Bull was also my 1st cousin 4x removed!  There were several tie-ups between the Marshall family and the Flanders family.   
A couple of years ago I got in touch with The University of Delaware library as they had a couple of documents in their system which related to the murder...I think these must be the same as the ones in the Bodlean Library.
I've also got a paper cutting which relates to Williams 'assault' on the little girl.
I'm new to this site and did attempt to post a reply to you yesterday (with the attachments) but it disappeared into the ether!  Fingers crossed I do it right 

[steviewonders]

Well it looks like I might be related to William as well then! Sarah was sister to my 3rd great grandfather Samuel Marshall so I am related to Sally who was murdered. And we should be 5th cousins Sally. Samuel married Lucy Flanders in 1842 so Id be interested in knowing the tie up to William Bull if there is one for me too.