John Bull John Bull John Bull is a national personification of the United Kingdom in general and England in particular, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged, country dwelling, jolly, matter-of-fact man. John Bull originated as a satirical character created by Dr John Arbuthnot, a friend of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. Bull first appeared in 1712 in Arbuthnot's pamphlet "Law is a Bottomless Pit". The same year Arbuthnot published a four-part political narrative "The History of John Bull". In this satirical treatment of the War of the Spanish Succession John Bull brings
Mariot Arbuthnot profession was proved by his altercation with Sir George Rodney; that he was destitute of even a rudimentary knowledge of naval tactics was shown by his absurd conduct of the Battle of Cape Henry; and, for the rest, he appears in contemporary stories (cf. "Morning Chronicle", 18 May 1781) as a coarse, blustering, foul-mouthed bully, and, in history, as a sample of the extremity to which the maladministration of Lord Sandwich had reduced the British Navy. Admiral Arbuthnot was the nephew of Dr. John Arbuthnot, the satirist and mathematician. Mariot Arbuthnot Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot (1711 – 31 January 1794) was