Editing Mad Jack Fuller (section)

== Later life ==
[[File:"Mad Jack" Fuller's tomb.JPG|thumb|200px|right|Fuller's tomb in Brightling Churchyard, 2009]]

Fuller was a supporter and sponsor of the [[Royal Institution]] in London, and acted as mentor and supporter of the young [[Michael Faraday]]. In 1818, he loaned the Institution £1000 (about £100,000 in today's value) and later wrote off the debt.

In 1828, he established the Fuller Medal of the Royal Institution and, in early 1833, he founded the [[Fullerian Professor of Chemistry|Fullerian Professorship of Chemistry]], to which Michael Faraday was appointed as the first professor. Later, Fuller also endowed the institution with the [[Fullerian Professor of Physiology|Fullerian Professorship of Physiology]].<ref>[http://johnmadjackfuller.homestead.com/fullerianprofessors.html John Fuller: Patron of the Royal Institution] Retrieved January 2007.</ref>  In contemporary times, use of the Fullerian title has been discontinued, and the two chairs are  no longer filled.<ref>{{cite web |title=John Fuller 'Mad Jack' - Profile & Legacies Summary |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/-1047169191 |website=Legacies of British Slavery |publisher=University College, London |access-date=8 October 2023}}</ref>

In 1818, Fuller built the [[Observatory]] at Brightling, designed by [[Robert Smirke (architect)|Robert Smirke]] and, in 1822, he endowed [[Eastbourne, East Sussex|Eastbourne]] in Sussex with its first [[lifeboat (rescue)|lifeboat]]. Unsubstantiated sources claim that, in 1828, he financed the building of the [[Belle Tout Lighthouse]], on the cliff at [[Beachy Head]], near Eastbourne. The first Belle Tout lighthouse was a temporary wooden structure that came into service on 1 October 1828. The construction of the permanent [[granite]] lighthouse began in 1829 and it became operational on 11 October 1834. On Thursday, 18 September 1828, Fuller bought [[Bodiam Castle]] for 3000 guineas at auction, to save it from destruction.

On the afternoon of Friday 11 April 1834, Fuller died at his home, 36 Devonshire Place, London, and was buried under "The Pyramid" in Brightling churchyard. For many years, the local legend was that he was buried in his pyramid seated at a table with a cooked chicken and a bottle of his favourite claret. The story is still told locally, although later excavation showed that it is not true. The main beneficiaries of his will were his nephew, Peregrine Palmer Fuller Palmer Acland (1789–1871), and General Sir Augustus Elliot Fuller (1777–1857), who was John Fuller's first cousin once removed.

Fuller is still fondly remembered in Sussex as a kindly man who, during times of great hardship, gave employment to many local men to build a wall around his estate in Brightling.