Robert Fuller

Robert Fuller (1782-1809) was Andrew Fuller’s eldest son and became the source of considerable grief to Fuller. He enlisted in the Army in 1798, but was discharged because he had been previously apprenticed. The next year he enlisted in the Marines, a stint that lasted until May 1800, when he returned to Kettering.  He stayed only a month, however, before leaving home once again, his departure provoking Fuller’s entry for July 21, 1800.  He was eventually impressed as a sailor, which caused considerable anguish to his father, even more so after he learned in June 1801 that his son had been found guilty of a misdemeanor, sentenced to 300 lashes, and immediately expired upon the execution of the sentence. Fuller’s grief (and guilt) can be seen in his final prose entry in the MS. volume of his diary, composed in June 1801. The report, however, proved false, and Robert Fuller lived for several more years, though he would continue to cause his father considerable grief and trouble. He remained in the navy, but deserted while in Ireland and suffered a punishment in July 1804 (350 lashes) that seriously damaged his health. He was discharged and soon visited Ryland in Bristol and his father, but once again, after his health was restored, he enlisted again in the marines and was gone for another three years, finally contacting his father in December 1808 just prior to departing on another voyage. He wrote to his father, asking forgiveness, and Fuller responded in kind, reminding his son, “I do, from my heart, freely forgive you. But that which I long to see in you, is, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ; without which, there is no forgiveness from above” (Ryland 303). Robert Fuller died on that voyage, just off the coast of Lisbon, in March 1809. Ryland was optimistic from accounts of the captain of the ship and some of Robert Fuller’s shipmates, as well as the last letters Robert Fullerr wrote prior to his death, suggesting that he died in a state of faith and grace (Ryland, 303), having attended in his final year at a Baptist church in Falkirk when the ship was at port (AG Fuller 1882, 73). Nevertheless, Ryland notes the difficulty he has in recounting such a history from his friend’s life, but he hopes “so affecting an account may be, under a divine blessing, the means of reclaiming some unhappy youth in similar circumstances” (304). Ryland was correct, for the story of Fuller’s son became widely known among Baptists in England and was used for evangelical purposes, as evidenced in the poetic treatment of the story by J. Dennant in The Affecting History of Robert Fuller, son of the late Rev. A. Fuller, of Kettering (London: Briscoe & Co., [n.d.]). As the author noted in his Advertisement, “No books, he conceives, are perused with more delight by youth in general, than affecting tales of real life; and when so adapted as to serve the cause of religion and virtue, they may be productive of the greatest and most lasting benefit to them, both here, and hereafter.” See AG Fuller, 70-73 for a detailed account of Fuller’s son taken largely from Fuller’s letters to Ryland; also Haykin, Armies of the Lamb, 281-88.