William Bullein

(c. 1515 - 1576)

Born on the Isle of Ely around 1515 to a family that may have been related to Anne Boleyn, William Bullein began practicing as a physician in 1554, after resigning a rectorship due to his fervent protestantism. He wrote Bullein’s Bulwarke and A Newe Booke Entituled the Gouernement of Healthe. The latter was dedicated to his patron, Baron Thomas Hilton, in a note attacking those who slander physicians as poisoners. Shortly after the book’s publication, Hilton died. Bullein married the baron’s widow and was promptly accused of poisoning his former benefactor.