Cyrus Bustill (February 2, 1732 1806) was an African-American

brewer Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...

and

baker A baker is a tradesperson who bakes and sometimes sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery. History Ancient history Since grains ha ...

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

and community leader. A notable business owner in the African-American community in Philadelphia, he also became a founding member of the

Free African Society The Free African Society, founded in 1787, was a benevolent organization that held religious services and provided mutual aid for "free Africans and their descendants" in Philadelphia. The Society was founded by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. It ...

in the city.

Background

Born in

Burlington, New Jersey Burlington is a city in Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a suburb of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 9,743. Burlington was first incorporated on October 24, 1693, and was r ...

, on February 2, 1732, Cyrus Bustill was a son of Quaker lawyer Samuel Bustill and Parthenia, a woman of African descent who was a slave owned by Samuel. After Samuel Bustill died in 1742, his widow, Grace Bustill, 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. While some sources indicate that Cyrus Bustill used his apprenticeship wages to purchase his freedom in 1774, others state that Prior liberated Cyrus by

manumission Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...

in 1769, which would have likely made Cyrus one of the 104 enslaved Africans described in records of the Burlington Quarterly Meeting of Friends as having been freed by Quakers between 1763 and 1796. By 1791, Cyrus Bustill was recorded as owning twelve acres in the black settlement of Guineatown between the Abington and

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

townships in

Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Montgomery County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the third-most populous county in Pennsylvania and the 73rd-most populous county in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the county was 856,55 ...

. He married Elizabeth Morey (1746–1827), a woman of Native American and European descent. Their children include

Grace Douglass Grace Bustill Douglass (1782 – March 9, 1842) was an African-American abolitionist and women's rights advocate. Her family was one of the first prominent free black families in the United States. Her family's history is one of the best documented ...

, David Bowser Bustill, and Mary Bustill. Considered the founder of the prominent

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.Woodson, C.G.Th ...

, his descendants include

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his p ...

(1898–1976),

David Bustill Bowser David Bustill Bowser (January 16, 1820, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – June 30, 1900, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a 19th-century African-American ornamental artist and portraitist. As the designer of battle flags for eleven African-American ...

(1820–1900)

Sarah Mapps Douglass Sarah Mapps Douglass (September 9, 1806 – September 8, 1882) was an American educator, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, writer, and public lecturer. Her painted images on her written letters may be the first or earliest survivi ...

(1806–1882), Robert Douglass Jr. (1809–1887) and

Gertrude Bustill Mossell Gertrude Emily Hicks Bustill Mossell (July 3, 1855 – January 21, 1948) was an African-American journalist, author, teacher, and activist. She served as the women's editor of the ''New York Age'' from 1885 to 1889, and of the '' Indianapolis World ...

(1855–1948). Cyrus Bustill died in 1806. His grave is located at the Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bustill, Cyrus 1732 births 1806 deaths 18th-century American businesspeople 18th-century American slaves African-American abolitionists African-American Christians American bakers Burials at Eden Cemetery (Collingdale, Pennsylvania) People from Burlington, New Jersey People of colonial New Jersey People of colonial Pennsylvania Quaker abolitionists Robeson-Bustill family