Charles Hicks Bustill

Charles Hicks Bustill (1816-1890) was a plasterer, abolitionist and conductor in the Underground Railroad before the American Civil War.

Early life and education

Charles was born in 1816 in Philadelphia to David Bustill (1787-1866) and Mary Hicks. He had two younger brothers: James M. Bustill (1820-after 1880) who married Lydia A. X (1824-?); and Joseph Cassey Bustill (1822-1895), who also became a conductor in the Underground Railroad. Bustill learned the trade of plasterer.

Family history

Paternal grandparents

David Bustill was born free as the mixed-race son of Elizabeth Morrey (1745-1827) and Cyrus Bustill (1732-1806) (born in Springfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey). He was of Anglo-American, African and Lenape ancestry. His parents married on August 6, 1773 in Christ Church, Philadelphia. As his mother was of English-Lenape ancestry, she was free, and their children were born free.

Great-grandparents

Cyrus Bustill was born into slavery, the mixed-race child of an enslaved woman and Samuel Bustill, a white lawyer who became active in colonial politics and was a "clerk to the council". Samuel Bustill later married Grace Gardiner and had additional children with her.

Elizabeth Morrey was also mixed-race, the daughter of Satterthwait, a Lenape woman, and Richard Morrey, an English immigrant.

Marriage

Charles Bustill married Emily Robinson (d. before 1870) and they had the following children:

• Maria Louisa Bustill (1853-1904), who married William Drew Robeson I (1845-1918). They they were the parents of Paul Robeson.
• Gertrude Emily Hicks Bustill (1855-1948), who married Nathan Francis Mossell (1856-1946). Mossell was the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania medical school.

By 1870, Charles Bustill was a widower supporting his two children.

Career

Bustill was active as an abolitionist. He served as a conductor in the resistance movement of the Underground Railroad during the antebellum years. As Philadelphia was a port, escaped slaves sometimes made their way by ship to the city, and anti-slavery supporters helped them go further north or settle in the region.

He worked as a plasterer in Philadelphia.

External links

• Robeson Family Biography
• Bustill Genealogy
• Bustill family in the Underground Railroad

Persondata
Name	Bustill, Charles Hicks
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1816
Place of birth
Date of death	1890
Place of death