Maria Louisa Bustill
Maria Louisa Bustill (1853-1904) was a Quaker schoolteacher; the mother of Paul Robeson; and the wife of the Reverend William Drew Robeson of Witherspoon Church in Princeton, New Jersey.
Birth
She was born in 1853 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania to Charles Hicks Bustill (1816-1890) and Emily Robinson (c1815-before1860). She was of mixed Ibo Nigerian, Delaware Native American, and American Quaker descent. Her siblings include: Samuel Bustill (1841-?); George Bustill (1847-?); Desaline Bustill (1848-?); and Mary Bustill (1854-?). Emily died some time before July 03, 1860 and Charles remarried someone named Catherine (1808-?). In 1870 Charles and all his male children were working as expressmen in Philadelphia.
Lincoln University and Marriage
In the 1870's she attended Lincoln University. There she met and married William Drew Robeson I (1845-1918), around 1873, and they had the following children: Gertrude Lascet Robeson (1880) who died as an infant; William Drew Robeson II (1881-?) b. November 1881, who was a physician in Washington, District of Columbia; Marian M. Robeson (1894-1977) b. December 01, 1894, who married a Forsythe and moved to Philadelphia; Benjamin Robeson (1894-1966) b. September 1894, who was a reverend at the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Harlem; J.B. Reeve Robeson (1886-?) aka Reed Robeson, b. March 1886 who moved to Detroit and may have worked at a hotel before he died in poverty; and Paul LeRoy Robeson (1898-1976) who was an orator, singer and actor. Another child died at birth, but the name is not known. In 1880 William and Maria were living on Witherspoon Street in Princeton, New Jersey. Maria is described as a mulatto.
Death
In 1904 she was nearly blind and she was burned in a kitchen accident when a coal from the stove fell on her clothes and set her on fire. She died several days later with burns over 80% of her body. She was buried in Princeton Cemetery.
Death and burial
She died in 1904 and is buried in Princeton Cemetery with her husband.
Paul Robeson on his ancestors
- The Bustill’s were somewhat of a distinguished family. My great-great-great-grandfather Cyrus Bustill (1732-1806) was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1732. He purchased his freedom before the Revolutionary War and joined the sizable free Black community in Philadelphia. He became a baker and supplied food to the starving troops in Valley Forge and received thanks from Gen. George Washington himself. Later he helped found the first Black self-help organization in America: the Free African Society in 1787 in Philadelphia. My great-great-grandfather Joseph Cassey Bustill was an agent in the Underground Railroad. He helped over a thousand slaves escape to freedom. He also founded the First Colored Presbyterian Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Then there was Sarah Mapps Douglass, who was a founding member of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. My mother’s sister Gertrude wrote for several Philadelphia newspapers. Aunt Gertrude’s husband Dr. Nathan Francis Mossell was the first Black graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Medical School. He was also an activist for racial justice.
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