Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 128.  Franklin County.

WILLIAM GRIGSBY BULLITT, of Frankfort, was born in Shelby county,
Kentucky, on the 16th of May, 1833, and is a representative of one of the
old and honored families of the south that has figured prominently in the
history of the nation for more than two centuries.  At the time of the
revocation of the edict of Nantes, Benjamin Bullitt, a Huguenot, fled from
France to escape persecution and sought religious liberty in the "land of
the free." He took up his abode in Port-Tobacco, Maryland, a short distance
south of the present site of Washington, District of Columbia. This was in
1685, and from that early period down to the present time members of the
family have aided in shaping the destiny of the nation, as foremost
representatives of the judiciary and as leaders in the council chambers of
the republic.
     Cuthbert Bullitt, the great-grandfather of the gentleman whose name
introduces this article, was born in Virginia and became a distinguished
lawyer of that state.  For many years he successfully engaged in practice
and was then appointed a judge of the supreme court, in which capacity he
was serving at the time of his death.  Both he and his brother, Colonel
Thomas Bullitt, were prominent factors in the public life of Virginia
during the period from the French and Indian to the Revolutionary war, and
afterward Cuthbert Bullitt became one of the most conspicuous figures at
the bar of the state.  His son, Alex Scott Bullitt, was born in Prince
William county, Virginia, in 1761, and in 1784, six years after his
father's death, emigrated to Kentucky, then a part of the Old Dominion.
He located in what is now Shelby county, but on account of the hostility
of the Indians he removed, after a few months, to Jefferson county,
entering there a tract of land on which he made his home through the
remainder of his days.  He married Annie Christian, daughter of Colonel
William Christian, of the American army, who, it was hoped by his friends,
would be placed in the position of commander-in-chief of the colonial
troops in the war of the Revolution.  In April, 1786, with a party of ten
men, he started in pursuit of a small band of Indians, who had been
committing depredations in the neighborhood.  Two of the red men, on
finding escape impossible, turned on their pursuers and mortally wounded
Colonel Christian.
     Alex Scott Bullitt continued to make his home in Jefferson county,
and in 1792 was made its delegate to the convention in Danville, where in
connection with George Nicholas he drafted the first constitution of
Kentucky.  After the adoption of the constitution he represented the county
in the state legislature, and was president of the senate until 1799, when
he was again chosen a delegate to amend the constitution, which met at
Frankfort.  Of this convention he was chosen president. The following year
he was elected lieutenant governor of the state and served one term
(1800-1804).  He was then continued by repeated re-elections a member of
either the house of representatives or the senate until 1808, when he
retired to private life, making his home on his farm in Jefferson county
until his death, April 13, 1816.
     Cuthbert Bullitt, the father of our subject, was born in Jefferson
county, Kentucky, in 1780, and he, too, turned his attention to the
practice of law as a life work.  His superior talents and eminent legal
ability soon gained him a high reputation and for a number of years he was
accounted one of the leading members of the Shelby county bar.  At length
he retired from professional life and gave his attention to the more
quiet pursuit of agriculture.  Called to public office by the vote of the
people he served in the state legislature and in 1835 made a canvass for
congress with every appearance of election, but on account of illness gave
up the race.  He died in Louisville, in 1855.  His wife, Harriett
(Willett) Bullitt, was of Welsh extraction, the first American ancestors
coming to Maryland in 1690.  She was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia,
and in her girlhood came with her parents to this state, locating in
Jefferson county, where her father engaged in the practice of medicine.
Mr. and Mrs. Bullitt became the parents of five sons and five daughters.
Alex Scott Bullitt, the eldest, who died in early manhood, was a member
of the bar of LaGrange, Oldham county, Kentucky; Willett Bullitt, who
for some years engaged in the practice of law in Warsaw, Trimble county,
Kentucky, and later became a prominent practitioner in New Albany, Indiana,
died in 1872.  Henry M. Bullitt became a physician and professor in
Transylvania University; and Cuthbert is also a medical practitioner,
doing an excellent business in Texas.
     The other son of the family is Judge William Grigsby Bullitt, of this
review.  He was a student in the preparatory department of Shelby College
for two years, after which he completed one year's work in the college
department of that institution.  He continued his education in South
Hanover College, near Madison, Indiana, for one year, then returned to
his native county, where he worked on his father's farm until he took up
the study of law in the office of Willett Bullitt, of New Albany, Indiana.
It is not strange that he seemed to incline instinctively to this favorite
profession of his family; nor is it more than justice to say that in his
chosen calling he has added new luster to the reputation made by his
ancestry at the bar of Virginia and Kentucky,--so famous for their many
brilliant members.  He was admitted to practice at Owensboro, in 1854,
and at once opened an office in Calhoun, McLean county, Kentucky, where he
remained until the spring of 1858, when he removed to Paducah, his place
of residence until 1892.
     In the meantime he had become prominent in the affairs of the state
through the time of civil strife.  He was a member of the convention which
met at Russellville and declared Kentucky to have seceded from the Union.
In 1861 he recruited a regiment for service in behalf of the Confederacy,
joining the cavalry troops under Ben Hardin Helm.  Later Mr. Bullitt was
commissioned major of the Sixth Kentucky Cavalry, which was attached to
General Morgan's command, and with him participated in the Ohio raid. At
Cheshire, Ohio, Major Bullitt was taken prisoner, and finally paroled,
entering the Confederate lines below Richmond, but taking no further part
in active service on the field.  He had previously participated in the
battles of Stone river,--in which he was on the skirmish line,--Fort
Donelson, and other engagements in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, being in
command of his regiment during the greater part of the service.
     After the fall of the Confederacy Major Bullitt returned to Paducah,
and in January, 1866, resumed the practice of law there.  He was elected
judge of the city courts in 1870, and in 1888 was appointed judge of the
circuit court by Governor Luke P. Blackburn, to fill the vacancy caused
by the death of Edward Crossland.  On the expiration of the term he
declined a nomination, preferring to take up the more lucrative private
practice, which had grown to extensive proportions.  In 1890 he was made
a delegate to the constitutional convention and took an active part in
formulating the present constitution of the state.  He was a valued member
of that body, and his sound opinions contributed materially to the framing
of the important document which was the work of the assemblage.  Almost a
century before, his grandfather had drafted the first constitution of the
state, and thus has the name of Bullitt been indelibly engraved on the
pages of Kentucky's history.
     In 1892 Mr. Bullitt removed from Paducah to Frankfort, where he has
since been engaged in the court of appeals, the fiscal court and the
United States court.  He has been actively interested in much of the
litigation of the district, but confines his attention chiefly to civil,
chancery and land cases.  He was retained as counsel in the well-known
case of Franke vs. the Paducah Water Company, and also on the case of
the the Paducah Ship Company, in liquidation, concerning the question of
the distribution of the estate and involving the disposal of many
thousands of dollars.  He undoubtedly inherited a singular aptitude for
the science of jurisprudence; to this he added thorough preparation,
while his inflexible love of justice, his diligence in preparing his
cases and his earnest devotion to his clients' interests has made him a
power at the Frankfort bar.
     In 1892 Mr. Bullitt was united in marriage with Miss Catherine
Crowe Pilkington, a native of Fayette county, Kentucky, a daughter of Dr.
Samuel C. Pilkington and Mary Lyle McDowell.  In his political adherency
he is a Democrat, but official preferment has had no attractions for him.
He holds membership in the Protestant Episcopal church.  A man of
scholarly attainment, his life has been largely given to study, and he
has that broad mental ken that comes from wide reading and deep thought
on the more serious questions which have called forth the attention of
learned men through many ages.

Bullitt Christian Crossland Pilkington Willett McDowell
=
Shelby-KY Louisville-Jefferson-KY LaGrange-Oldham-KY Fayette-KY
Paducah-McCracken-KY Calhoun-McLean-KY Owensboro-Daviess-KY Trimble-KY
Prince_William-VA Rockbridge-VA Washington_DC MD IN TX France

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/franklin/bullitt.wg.txt