William Bush

William Bush was born about 1829 at Ospringe near Faversham, to Joseph and Ann Bush.

At the end of March 1851 the census records that he was a farm labourer, and was staying at 9 Old Dover Road in the St Mary Bredman parish to the southeast of Canterbury. In 1861 he was married, working as a farm labourer, and living in Chilham, south-west of Canterbury. By 1871, at the age of 41, he lived at 29 Stour Street, St Mildreds, Canterbury with his wife, children and two lodgers, and was unemployed.

In 1881 his family's home was at 54 Stour Street. On census night, the house was in the care of his two teenage sons and his lodger and future son-in-law Tom Browning. His 7-year-old daughter Sarah was staying with friends in Ivy Lane, his wife was live-in nurse to the children of a watchmaker in Bridge Street, and their teenage daughter Charlotte was in service with a Tailor and his wife in the High Street. His father Joseph, aged 82, was in the Canterbury Union Workhouse. What crisis had caused the family to be scattered in this way is not certain; William was alive as his wife was not described as a widow, so where was he?

Sources: Census [1]1851; [2]1861; [3]1871; [4]1881