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
Alexander Arbuthnot (poet) to the charge of the kirk of St. Andrews, ordered him to return to his duties at King's College. Minister of Logie Buchan (1568), of Forve and Arbuthnott (1569) and of St Andrews (1583). Moderator of the General Assembly (1573 and 1577). He matriculated his arms. Buried St Nicholas, Aberdeen. His extant works are three poems, "The Praises of Wemen" (4 lines), "On Luve" (10 lines), and "The Miseries of a Pure (poor) Scholar" (189 lines), and a Latin account of the Arbuthnot family, "Originis et Incrementi Arbuthnoticae Familiae Descriptio Historica", of which an English continuation, by Dr John Arbuthnot,