Fay Sampson’s Family History
This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back 30 generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from my own as (1)
ELIZABETH BUSHELL (6)
ELIZABETH BUSHELL is probably the second child and the eldest of the three daughters of James Bushell and Mary Hogben . If so, she was baptised in Deal on 23 May 1773, soon after her parents had come to Deal from Margate. There is no record in Deal of any other Elizabeth Bushell of the right age baptised there, though she could have come from another parish.
On the 25 April 1794 there is the baptism of Thomas, illegitimate son of Elizabeth Bushell. Elizabeth would have been nearly 21.
For a single woman to bear a child was a disgrace, though it was not unusual for brides to be pregnant when they married. Elizabeth may have stayed on in her parents’ home to begin with, with James and Mary helping to raise Thomas. But two further children appeared, raising a different possibility.
Baptisms. Deal. (KFHS transcripts)
1797 14 May Dan. Allen BUSHELL illeg. S. of Eliz.
1802 30 May Hy. BUSHELL illeg. s. of Eliz.
It is unlikely that James and Mary would have borne the social stigma of so many fatherless children in their house. Indeed, the number points to the possibility that Elizabeth may have been a prostitute (known in some places as a ‘female barber’). If so, she may well have been earning enough to have her own cottage or rooms. It is less clear whether she was already a professional when Thomas was conceived. He might have been fathered by someone Elizabeth hoped to marry, though the absence of a second surname makes that doubtful. Or she might have had an employer who took advantage of her. In any case, once the first child was born, it would have been considerably more difficult for her to find a husband and it may have been then that she turned to prostitution to support herself and her child. Allen may be the surname of Daniel’s father.
Thomas and Henry both became boatbuilders and raised families in Deal.
Elizabeth has not been found in the 1841 census. She probably died before then.
NEXT GENERATION: 5. BUSHELL-FROST
PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 7. BUSHEL-HOGBEN