Robert Bushe

Slave-owner in Trinidad (where he owned the Waterloo estate) and probably in St Vincent. He claimed also as trustee to creditors for the compensation for a group of 65 enslaved people in Trinidad, and was probably the same man as the Robert Bushe appearing in three other smaller awards in Trinidad (and the Robert Burke or Bushe in Trinidad Claim No. 1642), as well as the Robert Bushe with an award in St Vincent (where Robert Bushe's son John Scott Bushe was reportedly born c 1826). Active in Trinidad in the 1830s but also in London in 1836. He was almost certainly the Robert Bushe of 15 Dover Street who was buried at All Souls Kensal Green aged 53 on 25/10/1844, but was however described as late of Dublin on the marriage of his son John Scott Bushe in 1848. Robert Bushe was the son of Gervase Parker Bushe and Mary Grattan and nephew of the 'acknowledged champion of enlightened Ireland', Henry Grattan.

1. John Scott Bushe 'an English creole' was Colonial Secretary in Trinidad 1861-1887. John Scott Bushe's son was Sir Henry Grattan Bushe, colonial Governor. John Scott Bushe was identified in his death-notice in the Times as the grandson of Gervase Parker Bushe MP of Kilfane and Mary Grattan.

2. 'Robert Bushe of St Vincent' was the buyer of a group of 31 enslaved people on Dominica between the 1817 and 1820 Dominica Registrations. He presumably then exported them to St Vincent (and/or possibly to Trinidad.)

3. Robert Bushe of Trinidad was listed as a subscriber to Charles Shephard's An Historical Account of the Island of Saint Vincent, published in 1832.

T71/894 Trinidad no. 1334. Claim by Robert Bushe Port of Spain trustee to benefit of creditors; Counterclaim from S. Cipriani, merchant of Port of Spain as guardian of his son, legatee £837 10s 8d. Admitted and settled at £500. T71/1273 letter from Robert Bushe No. 17 Albemarle Street.: 03/09/1836: he had counted on claim being settled, counterclaim of Sebastian Cipriani had been agreed. 'I calculated on my attornies receiving the claim which I had put in, with as much certainty as if it was a Bill of Exchange on the British Govt., and under such confident expectation I made engagements which it will be unprofitable for me to fulfil and my name as a merchant will be dishonoured, unless my cause is taken under consideration by your honourable Board'; Ancestry.com, London, England, Deaths and Burials 1813-1980 [database online]; The Spectator 08/07/1848; http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/grattan-henry-1746-1820 [accessed 05/11/2017].

1. Bridget Brereton, Race Relations in Colonial Trinidad 1870-1900 (Cambridge, 1979) p. 54; The Times 01/03/1887 p.8.

2. T71/356 401 - 402.

3. Charles Shephard, An Historical Account of the Island of Saint Vincent (1832) pp. vii-xii.