His last and best patron was George Berkeley, 1st Earl Berkeley (1628-1698), of Cranford House, Middlesex, whose chaplain he was, and who gave him Cranford rectory (1658). To this nobleman Fuller’s reply to Heylyn’s Examen Historicum, called The Appeal of Injured Innocence (1659), was inscribed. At the end of the Appeal is an epistle “to my loving friend Dr Peter Heylyn,” conceived in the admirable Christian spirit which characterized all Fuller’s dealings with controversialists. “Why should Peter,” he asked, “fall out with Thomas, both being disciples to the same Lord and Master? I assure you, sir, whatever you conceive to the contrary, I am cordial to the cause of the English Church, and my hoary hairs will go down to the grave in sorrow for her sufferings.”
In An Alarum to the Counties of England and Wales (1660) Fuller argued for a free and full parliament—free from force, as he expressed it, as well as from abjurations or previous engagements. Mixt Contemplations in Better Times (1660), dedicated to Lady Monk, tendered advice in the spirit of its motto, “Let your moderation be known to all men: the Lord is at hand.” There is good reason to suppose that Fuller was at the Hague immediately before the Restoration, in the retinue of Lord Berkeley, one of the commissioners of the House of Lords, whose last service to his friend was to interest himself in obtaining him a bishopric. A Panegyrick to His Majesty on his Happy Return was the last of Fuller’s verse-efforts. On the 2nd of August, by royal letters, he was admitted D.D. at Cambridge. He resumed his lectures at the Savoy, where Samuel Pepys heard him preach; but he preferred his conversation or his books to his sermons. Fuller’s last promotion was that of chaplain in extraordinary to Charles II. In the summer of 1661 he visited the west in connexion with the business of his prebend, which had been restored to him. On Sunday, the 12th of August, while preaching at the Savoy, he was seized with typhus fever, and died at his new lodgings in Covent Garden on the 16th of August. He was buried in Cranford church, where a mural tablet was afterwards set up on the north side of the chancel, with an epitaph which contains a conceit worthy of his own pen, to the effect that while he was endeavouring (viz. in The Worthies) to give immortality to others, he himself attained it.
Fuller’s wit and vivacious good-humour made him a favourite with men of both sides, and his sense of humour kept him from extremes. Probably Heylyn and South had some excuse for their attitude towards his very moderate politics. “By his particular temper and management,” said Echard (Hist. of England, iii. 71), “he weathered the late great storm with more success than many other great men.” He was known as “a perfect walking library.” The strength of his memory was proverbial, and some amusing anecdotes are connected with it.
His writings were the product of a highly original mind. He had a fertile imagination and a happy faculty of illustration. Antithetic and axiomatic sentences abound in his pages, embodying literally the wisdom of the many in the wit of one. He was “quaint,” and something more. “Wit,” said Coleridge, in a well-known eulogy, “was the stuff and substance of Fuller’s intellect. It was the element, the earthen base, the material which he worked in; and this very circumstance has defrauded him of his due praise for the practical wisdom of the thoughts, for the beauty and variety of the truths, into which he shaped the stuff. Fuller was incomparably the most sensible, the least prejudiced, great man of an age that boasted a galaxy of great men” (Literary Remains, vol. ii. (1836), pp. 389-390). This opinion was formed after the perusal of the Church-History. That work and The History of the Worthies of England are unquestionably Fuller’s greatest efforts. They embody the collections of an entire life; and since his day they have been the delight of many readers. The Holy State has taken rank amongst the best books of “characters.” Charles Lamb made some selections from Fuller, and had a profound admiration for the “golden works” of the “dear, fine, silly old angel.” Since Lamb’s time, mainly through the appreciative criticisms of S.T. Coleridge, Robert Southey and others, Fuller’s works have received much attention.
There is an elaborate account of the life and writings of Fuller by William Oldys in the Biographia Britannica, vol. iii. (1750), based on Fuller’s own works and the anonymous Life of ... Dr Thomas Fuller (1661; reprinted in a volume of selections by A.L.J. Gosset, 1893). The completest account of him is The Life of Thomas Fuller, with Notices of his Books, his Kinsmen and his Friends (1874), by J.E. Bailey, who gives a detailed bibliography (pp. 713-762) of his works. The Worthies of England was reprinted by John Nichols (1811) and by P.A. Nuttall (1840). His Collected Sermons were edited by J.E. Bailey and W.E.A. Axon in 1891. Fuller’s quaint wit lends itself to selection, and there are several modern volumes of extracts from his works.
FULLER, WILLIAM (1670-c. 1717), English impostor, was born at Milton in Kent on the 20th of September 1670. His paternity is doubtful, but he was related to the family of Herbert. After 1688 he served James II.’s queen, Mary of Modena, and the Jacobites, seeking at the same time to gain favour with William III.; and after associating with Titus Oates, being imprisoned for debt and pretending to reveal Jacobite plots, the House of Commons in 1692 declared he was an “imposter, cheat and false accuser.” Having stood in the pillory he was again imprisoned until 1695, when he was released; and at this time he took the opportunity to revive the old and familiar story that Mary of Modena was not the mother of the prince of Wales. In 1701 he published his autobiographical Life of William Fuller and some Original Letters of the late King James. Unable to prove the assertions made in his writings he was put in the pillory, whipped and fined. He died, probably in prison, about 1717. Fuller’s other writings are Mr William Fuller’s trip to Bridewell, with a full account of his barbarous usage in the pillory; The sincere and hearty confession of Mr William Fuller (1704); and An humble appeal to the impartial judgment of all parties in Great Britain (1716).
He must be distinguished from William Fuller (1608-1675), dean of St Patrick’s (1660), bishop of Limerick (1663), and bishop of Lincoln (1667), the friend of Samuel Pepys; and also from William Fuller (c. 1580-1659), dean of Ely and later dean of Durham.
FULLER’S EARTH (Ger. Walkererde, Fr. terre à foulon, argile smectique)—so named from its use by fullers as an absorbent of the grease and oil of cloth,—a clay-like substance, which from its variability is somewhat difficult to define. In colour it is most often greenish, olive-green or greenish-grey; on weathering it changes to a brown tint or it may bleach. As a rule it falls to pieces when placed in water and is not markedly plastic; when dry it adheres strongly to the tongue; since, however, these properties are possessed by many clays that do not exhibit detergent qualities, the only test of value lies in the capacity to absorb grease or clarify oil. Fuller’s earth has a specific gravity of 1.7-2.4, and a shining streak; it is usually unctuous to the touch. Microscopically, it consists of minute irregular-shaped particles of a mineral that appears to be the result of a chloritic or talcose alteration of a felspar. The small size of most of the grains, less than .07 mm., makes their determination almost impossible. Chemical analysis shows that the peculiar properties of this earth are due to its physical rather than its chemical nature.