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)
JAMES BUSHEL and MARY HOGBEN (7)
JAMES BUSHEL. The Bushell family appear in the Deal records from 1641, but there never appears to be more than one family of that name having children baptised at any one time. The only James found so far in Deal was born in 1668, too late to be the husband of Mary. There is, however, a possible baptism for him on 15 May 1743 in Minster in Thanet. This James was the youngest son of Richard and Ann Bushell. This would fit very well with him being of the parish of St John in Thanet (Margate) when he married there. Minster is only 4 miles away.
MARY HOGBEAN. Weddings usually take place in the bride’s parish. We know from the banns of her marriage that Mary married in St John in Thanet (Margate) but that she was of the parish of Monkton. This makes it most likely that she was the daughter of Michael Hogben and Elizabeth Merriams, baptised in Birchington, a village on the coast just west of Margate, on 18 Oct 1747. Her parents had married in Monkton that year.
This marriage between James and Mary took place at the parish church of St John the Baptist, on either 6 or 10 June 1770. Mary would have been 23 and James 27.
The couple had a son James, baptised in Margate on 28 April 1771. No other children have been found for them in that parish, and the dates would fit well with a subsequent move to Deal. We know that they had three daughters baptised in the parish of St Leonard’s there.
Baptisms. Deal. (KFHS transcript)
1773 23 May Eliz. BUSHEL d of Jas & My
1775 10 Dec Ann BUSHEL d of Jas & My
1781 27 May My BUSHEL d of Jas & My
Their son James became a baker, so it is possible that this was the older James’s trade too.
When she was 20, their eldest daughter Elizabeth had an illegitimate son, Thomas, followed by two others, Daniel and Henry. This suggests that she may have been a prostitute. It was quite common for grandparents to absorb one such fatherless child into their family, even passing it off as their own, and they may have kept Elizabeth and Thomas with them to begin with. But it is unlikely that they would have continued to do so as more illegitimate children followed.
James Bushell was buried in Deal on 23 Nov 1800.
Mary Bushell was buried 9 Sept 1804. [1]
[1] Kent, England, Tyler Index to Parish Registers 1578-1874.
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