The Bulmer family were a noble family of Norman England, resident in Yorkshire. The family take their name from Bulmer, North Yorkshire. The name Bulmer comes from English "Bull mere", a lake frequented by a bull, and is an Anglicised form of Gaelic "Búir na mara" (literally meaning "roar of the sea") from the Celtic tribe Brigantes during their occupation of the area. Ansketil de Bulmer was the first documented member of the Bulmer family who lived in the area in the twelfth century with the current spelling.
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Ansketil was the High Sheriff of Yorkshire. The surname Bulmer is the subject of much discussion as it is believed that they were an aristocratic family of Anglo-Saxon origin who retained their status after the invasion of the Normans. It is believed that the Bulmers were related to the Anglo-Saxon noble Liulf, who was the first member of the Lumley family. Liulf was murdered at Gateshead by the retainers of William Walcher, the first Norman Bishop of Durham, in 1081.
The Bulmers are thought to have continued as tenants of the Normans who inherited Liulf's land in Yorkshire. Sometime in the twelfth century Ansketil Bulmer is said to have married the daughter of the Lord of Brancepeth and their son Bertram Bulmer, who succeeded him as High Sheriff, inherited this property. Later the Bulmers intermarried with the powerful Norman family of Neville, who adopted the bull for their coat of arms and inherited Brancepeth Castle. Raby Castle, the other great Neville property may also have belonged to the Bulmers as the oldest part of this castle, the Saxon Bulmer Tower, is inscribed with the initials BB for Bertram Bulmer.
A later branch of the Bulmer family had its seat at Wilton Castle, Wilton, in present day Redcar and Cleveland.
Sir Ralph Bulmer was Lord of the Manor of Wilton, in 1310, and was granted a royal licence to crenellate his manor house there in 1330.
Sir William Bulmer (1465–1531) of Wilton was High Sheriff of Durham 1503-1516 and High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1517. His son Sir John Bulmer (1481–1537) and his wife Ann Bigod, were heavily involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace of October 1536 led by Robert Aske and in Bigod's Rebellion, the uprising of January 1537 led by her nephew Sir Francis Bigod of Settrington. Both Bulmer and Lady Bulmer were convicted of High Treason and were executed on 25 May 1537 , he by hanging at Tyburn and she by burning at the stake at Smithfield, London. Their estates were forfeited but were later recovered by their son Ralph.
William Bulmer (1492–1546) brother of John, married Elizabeth Elmeden, heiress of Embleton near Sedgfield, Co Durham and thereby acquired estates at Embleton, Tursdale, Claxton and Fishburn. Much land was sold by Sir Bertram Bulmer (1579–1638) and that remaining was sequestered in 1644 when his son, William Bulmer was declared a delinquent for opposition to Parliament during the Civil War. The estate was eventually restored to his brother Anthony and sold by him.
Wilton Castle was slighted following the Civil War and was thereafter uninhabitable. It was demolished and rebuilt by a new owner in the early 19th century
Matthew Bulmer had been purportedly hanged in 1649 due to accusation of witchcraft during Witch trials in Early Modern Europe in Newcastle, England.[1]