Person:Francis Bushnell (4)

"My Phillips Family Heritage" by Bill Phillips Downloaded 2 July 2009 http://www.geocities.com/gewdunn/bushnell.html

The Descendants of Francis Bushnell in America "None of this information is new. I saw no point to paraphrase and pretend it is my work. It is not my work. It represents some 35 years of research by George Eleazer Bushnell and was published after his death. He is fully entitled to the credit. What is used here is taken directly, eliminating the abbreviations, from: Bushnell, George Eleazer. Bushnell Family Genealogy - Ancestry and Posterity of Francis Bushnell (1580 - 1648) of Horsham, England and Guilford, Connecticut. Nashvillle, Tennessee:1945."

1st Generation in America FRANCIS 1 BUSHNELL, born about 1580, died Guilford, CT about 1646, married 1st, at Horsham,13 MAY 1605, Ferris QUENELL, baptized Horsham, 17 APR 1587, died in childbirth, and buried there with her daughter Elizabeth 10 MAR 1627/8, daughter of Henry and Beatrix (CARTER) QUENELL, who married at Horsham 30 JAN 1585/6, and grand daughter of Henry, and great grand daughter of Henry Quenell. He married 2nd, at Horsham 02 JUN 1629, Joan KINWARD who died at Horsham and was buried there 21 JUN 1631 .

It is asserted by some American writers that he married Rebecca Holmes, but no record has been produced, nor has any record been brought to my attention, where his name is associated with the name Rebecca, though diligent search has been made. It is certain that there were no children by such a marriage even if it was a fact.

Francis Bushnell, born Thatchem, county Berks, England about 1580, first appears of record at Horsham, county Sussex, England on the date of his first marriage, and for 27 years, he or his children are mentioned in the church register, after which the name disappears for some forty years. All the Bushnell records during this period pertain to him, his children, or his grand children, with the exception of two entries which we have failed to identify, viz: Peter Bushnell, "a child," buried 21 FEB 1622/3, and Mary, "wid." buried 22 FEB 1624/5,

In 1635, his five living sons left their native shore bound for America, and four years later he followed with his two daughters, Sarah and Rebecca, in the company of Rev. Henry Whitfield, aboard the "St. John." After they had been at sea about ten days, the company formulated a covenant, sometimes called the "Guilford Covenant," or "The Plantation Covenant," upon which his name appears third, while that of the Rev. John Hoadley, who married his daughter Sarah, appears ninth. The company landed at Fair Haven, CT between the 10th and 15th of July 1639 and two months later the deed was signed for their new settlement at Menunkatuck, purchased of the Quinipiac Indians, which they named Guilforde after the shire town in Surrey, England from which some of the emigrants came .

He does not seem to have been very active in the affairs of the colony, although his home lot of about 3 1/2 acres, on the N.E. corner of the roads now known as Fair and Broad Streets, was one of the choice locations. When his son, Francis, Jr., came to Guilford, he acquired the lot next north of the northwest corner lot, on Fair Street, while the Rev. John Hoadley had a lot on the south side of Broad Street between Fair and River Streets .

Here he resided until his death in 1646, and his will, attested to by Mr. Henry Whitfield, the first minister, and William Leete, the first governor, at a session of the Plantation Court, held 13 OCT 1646, was the first document of it's kind to be probated there. Both Mr. Whitfield and Mr. Leete, as well as the Rev. John Hoadley, were 'Pillars' of the First Church of Guilford.

No evidence has been presented that he had either a brother, a wife, or any other relative in America, other than his five sons and two daughters.

Bushnell, George Eleazer,. Bushnell family genealogy : ancestry and posterity of Francis Bushnell, 1580-1646, of Horsham, England and Guilford, Connecticut, including genealogical notes of other Bushnell families, whose connections with this branch of the family tree have not been determined. Santa Monica, Calif.: unknown, 1949.

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Francis Bushnell, b. Thatcham, co. Berks, prob. rem. abt, or after 1600 to Horsham, co. Sussex, where he m. and where he d. in 1648. Only a few facts ae known concerning his residence in Horsham, aside from records of aptists, marriges, and burials, which relate to his family, but these weem to indicate a continuous residence theer up to the times of their emigrations. It would appear that he was an artisan, perhaps a painter and decorator, for in 1810/11, "Francis Bushnell" was paid vs (five shilligs) for "collaring the funt" (of the church or altar); (From transcript of the Horsham Church Register for the Sussex Record Society, Vol. 21, 1915), also his sons were artisans, for his son Francis was a millwright, his son William a carpenter, and his son John a glazier and later a barber, while his eldest son Edmund was evidently an artisan as well as a farmer (vide). If, as has been stated, they were Independents in their religious beliefs, they at least subscribed to the Church at Horsham, for by a seating list of this church dated 1625, William, Henry, John, and Mathew Grombridge had the first "Seats" for which they "paid vz a peece" and in the "fift Seats" was John Bushnell" sho hath paid xs" In the "sixt Seats" is placed Edmond Bushnell - and William Bushnell who have paid for their "rooms xjs," - " and a Seate under the new gallary stayers for Pharis Bushnell, the wife of Frauncis Bushnell, to belong to him and his heirs for ever." In 1628/7 he was a church warden, and on 25 Mar. 1636 and 29 Sept 1637, "Fra Bushnell" made donations for the "reparation of St. Pauls in Longon" (Transcript of the Horsham Church Register for the Sussex Society Record, Vol 21, 1915). It is not probable that this family emigrated because of religious persecutions"

1.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   1:317.

   "BUSHNEALL, FRANCIS, Guilford 1639, d. 1646, had brot. from Eng. s. Francis, and d. Rebecca, that m. John Lord of Hartford, and d. very soon after her f."

2. ↑ Ferris, Mary Walton. Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines: A Memorial Volume Containing the American Ancestry of Rufus R. Dawes; and A Memorial Volume Containing the American Ancestry of Mary Beman (Gates) Dawes. (Milwaukee, WI: Cuneo Press, 1931-1943)
   page 163.
3.   Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 1999-2011).

   Named as the father of Francis Bushnell and John Bushnell, 1635 immigrants, with wife Ferris Quenell. Citing Bushnell Anc 2.