Bustill family

The Bustill family is a prominent American family of largely African, European and Lenape Native American descent. The family has included artists, educators, journalists and activists, both against slavery and against Jim Crow.[1]

Bustill
Current regionPhiladelphia
Place of originAfrica
Europe
America
Founded1732
FounderCyrus Bustill
Connected familiesRobeson family
Douglass family

History

Born in Burlington, New Jersey on February 2, 1732, Cyrus Bustill was a son of the Quaker lawyer Samuel Bustill and Parthenia, a woman of African descent who was held in bondage by him. When Samuel Bustill died in 1742, his legal widow, Grace Bustill, subsequently arranged for the sale of Cyrus Bustill to fellow Quaker Thomas Prior (or "Pryor") with the understanding that Prior would allow Cyrus to train and earn enough money as an apprentice baker in order to purchase his freedom.[2]

Cyrus would go on to either purchase his freedom or receive manumission at an indeterminate date, then become a businessman and landowner in his own right thereafter. At the time of his death in 1806, he was a leading member of the African-American upper class of Philadelphia.

Cyrus and his wife, the mixed race Elizabeth Morey (1746-1827, of Native American and European descent), had eight children.[1] One of them was the abolitionist and feminist advocate Grace Douglass.

Other notable descendants of Cyrus and Elizabeth Morey Bustill include the performer and activist Paul Robeson, the artist David Bustill Bowser, the educator, abolitionist and writer Sarah Mapps Douglass, the journalist and activist Gertrude Bustill Mossell, and the artist and activist Robert Douglass Jr.

Family tree
  • Samuel Bustill (d. 1742) m. Parthenia
    • Cyrus Bustill (1732-1806) m. Elizabeth Morey (1746–1827)
      • Grace Douglass (1782 – March 9, 1842) m. Robert Douglass
      • David Bustill m. Elizabeth W. Hicks
        • Charles Hicks Bustill (1816–1890) m. Emily Robinson
        • Joseph Cassey Bustill (1822–1895) m. Sarah Humphreys (1829–?)
          • Anna Amelia Bustill (1862–?) m. James Humphery Smith
            • Humphery J. Smith
            • Virginia Bustill Smith (1893–1978) m. Joseph Walter Rhetta
              • Carldon Walter Rhetta m. Wilhelmina Chapman
              • James Curtis Rhetta m. Ruth A. Washington
                • James Curtis Rhetta II m. Emma F. Johnson
                  • Mark Rhetta
                    • Zoey Rhetta
                  • James C. Rhetta III m. Yolanda Causey
                    • James C. RhettaIV
                    • Jacob C. Rhetta
            • Curtis L. Smith
            • George J. Smith
            • John R. Smith
            • Anna E. Smith
      • Mary Bustill Miller m. John Miller
        • Cyrus Bustill Miller
      • Ruth
      • Rachael Bustill Bowser (1780-1848) m. Jeremiah Bowser (1766–1856)
      • Leah
      • Charles
      • Cyrus, Jr.

See also

References
  1. Woodson, C.G. "The Bustill Family," in "Negro History Bulletin," Vol. 11, No. 7, pp. 147-148, p. 167. Washington, D.C.: The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).
  2. Temple, Brian (2014). Philadelphia Quakers and the Antislavery Movement. McFarland. ISBN 9780786494071.
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