Andrew Marcus Bulteel was born in September 1850 in Liverpool, the second son of Andrew Hume Bulteel and his wife Catherine Chartres. The Bulteel family was of
Huguenot descent and had arrived in England in the 1600s, from France after the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Three brothers had made the trip, one died unmarried in London whilst the two remaining brothers acquired the estate of
Flete in
Devon. Andrew's grandfather, Edward Bulteel (a cousin of
John Crocker Bulteel the M.P. of Flete) settled at
Sligo in Ireland, where his uncle was Collector of the Customs. He married Eleanor Hume, of Scottish descent and a descendant of
General Walker, Governor of Derry. They had a number of children including three sons Edward Josiah, Samuel William (Director of the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway), and Andrew Hume, (Andrew's father), as well as six daughters (Susan, Matilda, Ellen, Jane, Margaret, Anne and Mary). Andrew Hume like his great uncle became a Collector of H.M. Customs, but based in Liverpool. He married, on 8 June 1841, Catherine, daughter of Rev. Marcus Chartres, Prebendary of Clone and Rector of Ferns,
County Wexford and Sophia Irvin of Enniskillen. Andrew Marcus had an older brother, Edward, and three sisters Sophia-Matilda, Eleanor-Mary and Emily-Catherine. ==Rugby union career==