'Hawkesbury Gazette' Article on Paul Bushell

There is plenty of history at the Hawkesbury, a fact recognised each week by the local paper, the Hawkesbury Gazette, via its History page . On Wednesday, 12 September that newspaper published (on page 28) my Paul Bushell, 1766-1853 article written for the Hawkesbury Family History Group. Of course the text was sourced mainly from my book Paul Bushell, Second Fleeter, as follows:

Paul Bushell survived the horrors of the 1790 voyage of the Second Fleet ship Surprize and became a trusted member of Sydney's night watch before moving to the Hawkesbury circa 1798.

He lived his colonial life independently of financial assistance from officialdom. In musters he was never ‘on the stores’ and by employing other convicts he took them off the public purse too. Remarkably, for nearly 40 years until 1829, he asked for nothing for himself, not even a land grant.

Instead he earned the money to buy all his land. Recognised by Governor Hunter for industriousness as a farmer, he also had equine, shoemaking and timber-cutting businesses. These ventures funded his purchase of the 503 acres bequeathed to his children in his will plus the 50 acres given as a marriage dowry to his adopted daughter Isabella Forrester and another 60 acres given to his eldest son George, a total of 613 acres, quite an achievement. Some of his land (at Kurrajong and Currency Creek) was flood-free but the land beside Bushells Lagoon at Wilberforce caused him plenty of trouble.

Long before Governor Macquarie’s community-building efforts, Paul played a role in the establishment of two schools, at Wilberforce and Ebenezer. He supported his community’s various fund-raising appeals and charitable causes and was an occasional member of the committee of the Hawkesbury Benevolent Society.

He also played a role in establishing two churches. Having an ecumenical interest in the concept of living a moral life, in 1808-1809 he was accepted within the non-conformist ‘Coromandel Settlers’ group which built the Presbyterian Church at Ebenezer. In 1814, at his house, he hosted a visit by William Pascoe Crook, prominent in the formation of the Congregational Church. Around 1820 he was an active parishioner of St Matthew’s Church of England at Windsor before joining the congregation of St John’s at Wilberforce and later working for the construction of that church.  His close Catholic friends included the Wilberforce teacher James Kenny and the Yeomans family.

Paul stood up to be counted for his beliefs. He opposed the overturn of Governor Bligh in 1808. In 1821 he was active in the Society of Emancipated Colonists, which sought to protect the civil rights of everyone in the colony. He joined the support committees for several political candidates during the 1840s and early 1850s.

Paul had two stable long-term relationships. His first marriage was childless but he and Jane Sharp stuck together until her death in 1820. He had 10 children with his much younger second wife Isabella Brown, the last born when Paul was seventy-eight, and he helped raise at least three other children. Earning the admiration of his female descendants, Paul was well ahead of his time in his attitude to women’s rights to education and inheritance.

His death in 1853 at the age of 86 ended his convict success story.