Major William Bousfield of the Royal Corps of Artillery, died 1736
He joined the Army sometime before 1689, for in March that year “he was sent from the Royal Board of Ordinance” to Ireland with the forces of King William (of Orange) to fight the Catholic Irish supporting the deposed King James II. He took part in all the battles which still reverberate in the politics of Northern Ireland, including the famous Battle of the Boyne. He remained in Ireland until 1701 and from following year was in Flanders fighting the French and others. Later he was part of the Duke of Marlborough’s army, again opposing the French in the War of Spanish Succession 1701-13. He fought at the battle of Blenheim and is credited with having set fire to the village of Blenheim during the course of the battle. He received his commission as Major in 1707.
His obituary in the Gentleman’s Magazine lauded his “great gallantry” as well as his “affability, humanity, honour, probity and bravery.” His will is an important starting point for the history of the Nottinghamshire Bousfields, of whom he is generally considered the paterfamilias, although he was neither father to the line nor ever a resident of the county. He married but left no surviving children or grandchildren. His portrait in oils and several etchings made from it survive.
Rev. Henry Brougham Bousfield, first Bishop of Pretoria 1832-1902
Son of William Cheek Bousfield, a barrister, he gained an ‘exhibition’ to Caius College, Cambridge, graduating in 1855. He was ordained priest the following year and served at first in Braishfield, Hampshire. After serving a couple of other parishes, he was appointed Rural Dean of West Andover in 1873, but a long-standing interest in overseas missionary work saw him appointed as the first Bishop of Pretoria, now in the Republic of South Africa, when in 1877 the diocese was created to serve the gold-mining population. The Anglican Church in the area scarcely existed when he arrived, yet in spite of continuing unrest in the area (Zulu and Boer Wars and the Jameson Raid) over the next 25 years he worked successfully to establish the diocese. From six clergy in 1877, he had raised the number to 32 in 1899 when the major Boer war broke out, while the number of white parishioners alone rose more than ten times to 18,000. He died suddenly, still in office at the age of 69, in Cape Town.
He married twice and had a total of eight children. His book ‘Six Years in the Transvaal’ described the early part of his time as bishop. “A man of high devotion, (his) extreme candour and view of episcopal power sometimes strained relations with his clergy.” An entry on him can be found in the Dictionary of National Biography.
Edward Little Bousfield, Mayor of Newark 1789-after 1846
The eldest son of Edward and Mary Bousfield, he was the first Bousfield of his line to be born in Newark. He followed his father into the business he had established in Kirk Gate, Newark, as brazier and tinman, and after Edward’s death in 1832 continued it with his younger brother William. Concerned with making, finishing and selling a large variety of houshold items, the business naturally expanded into ironmongery as cast iron goods became more readily available. He was one of a group of local businessmen to bring gas-lighting to the streets, shops and theatre of Newark from 1832. This involved building a gasworks as well as setting up the lights and supply line.
Taking immediate advantage of the Municipal Reform Act of 1835, which swept away the old oligarchies running town councils, he was elected Town Councillor in January 1836 and by 1843 had been elected Mayor. As such he was also appointed magistrate. Indeed his duties as Mayor, typically for the time, were more judicial than administrative. In 1846 there was a crisis in the business. He had to make a “composition with his creditors” and by the end of the year had disappeared from the records. He married twice, having six daughters by his first wife.
Edward Tenney Bousfield, agricultural engineer 1829-1916
The second son of William and Frances Bousfield, he was born at Bar Gate House in Newark, where his mother ran a school for girls. He went to school locally and perhaps served as an apprentice with the firm of Nicholsons in the town. After two years running his own business in rural Devon, in 1858 he joined Howard’s of Bedford, which had just completed a major expansion of its agricultural implement works. For the next 30 years and more he was the company’s main design engineer, responsible for many new products as well as improvements to existing ones. In the early years he concentrated on steam engines and other accessories for steam ploughing and it seems to have been he who invented the system of two engines dragging a multi-share plough between them, which became standard. By 1880 he had turned his attention to sheaf-binders, and was claimed as the inventor of the first English sheaf-binder. His last major development was on light rail systems for use in plantations, mines and the like, which like many of the other products he developed for Howard’s was sold all over the world As chief designer and general manager, he helped Howard’s become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of its kind. He took out almost 100 patents mainly in conjunction with his director James Howard, but later after Howard’s death on his own.
A quiet self-effacing man of a somewhat depressive temperament, he was deeply religious and a Methodist lay-preacher. In 1887 at the age of 58 he qualified as a barrister, though he never practised. On full retirement in 1903 he moved with his wife Charlotte (see below) to Nottingham and died there at the age of 86.
Charlotte Eliza Bousfield, nee Collins, Temperance campaigner and Diarist 1828-1933
The eldest child of the Rev. Robert Collins. a Congregationalist minister, and his wife , also Charlotte, she was born at Braunton in north Devon. She had a very religious upbringing and from her teens found employment as a governess or assistant teacher. By around 1850 she was working for Frances Bousfield, her future mother-in-law, in Newark. In 1853 she married her son Edward Tenney Bousfield and bore him six children. In Bedford she threw herself into work for the local Methodist Church, not merely running a Sunday School and Mothers’ Meetings, but being the initiator and main fund-raiser for a new chapel built on land next to her home in 1873. In 1882 she joined the Temperance movement and thereafter for many years the promotion of total abstinence became the main focus of her life. She was chosen as local delegate of the British Women’s Temperance Association (BWTA), and in 1885 was Secretary of the Committee formed to set up a Home for female alcoholics. Her drive and persistence ensured this became a reality. She was also much in demand around the country in support of local Temperance Societies. When the BWTA split in two, she became President of one of the replacement associations in Bedford. In 1894 she was elected one of the first female Poor Law Guardians, helping to make the Bedford warehouse decent and honest towards its inmates after years of corrupt management. In Nottingham too, she continued to work both on Temperance matters and for the local Workhouse.
She also found time to write a diary of over half a million words spanning 40 years – 1878-1919, providing a vivid picture of her many good works, her family life and their holidays. Highly puritan in her outlook, she objected to novels, gambling and dancing and abhorred the theatre. Though a formidable character and tremendously energetic, her lack of warmth and social skills caused problems with many of those she worked with. She made her last public speech at over 100 years old and died in Nottingham aged 105.
William Robert Bousfield, barrister and politician 1854-1943
He was born in Newark, the eldest child of Edward Tenney and Charlotte Bousfield. After school at Bedford Commercial (now Modern) School, he gained a scholarship to Gauis College, Cambridge in 1873. There followed some brief commercial and academic experience in engineering and mathematics before he decided to study for the Bar. He was called to the Bar in 1880 and rapidly achieved both professional and financial success as a Patent lawyer, while continuing to write for the engineering press. He became a Queen’s Counsel in 1890 and was offered a judgeship in his 40s, which he turned down on financial grounds. Turning additionally to politics, he was elected as a Conservative for North Hackney in 1892. Though active in debate, his independence of opinion prevented him from advancement in his political career. He successfully sponsored a Private bill to provide barristers in criminal cases for accused too poor to afford them. He lost his seat in 1906, and thereafter expanded his scientific work particularly into the production of extremely pure water necessary for research into ionization. This earned him Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1916. Later he turned to psychology and wrote several books on the subject.
In later life he suffered a form of Parkinson’s Disease, which severely restricted his movements. He married young and had seven children. A most generous and sociable man, he loved to entertain in his large house. Paying for the education of poorer relatives was only one part of his willingness to help those in need.
Edward Collins Bousfield, doctor and pioneer public health worker 1855-1921
The second son of Edward Tenney and Charlotte Bousfield, like his elder brother William Robert, he too was born in Newark. He attended the Grammar School in Bedford and then studied medicine with a local General Practitioner. He qualified both as a surgeon and physician, finally taking over a General Practice in the Old Kent Road in south London in 1885. From the start he was as much interested in research as in treating patients, and established himself as one of the leading experts in microscopy particularly in relation to the new science of bacteriology. He set up a laboratory alongside his practice, where he was among the pioneers of the microscopic identification of infectious bacteria. In effect his became the first Public Health laboratory in the UK, when in 1898 he was appointed bacteriologist by the London Borough of Camberwell, the first such appointment in the country. He also did research work for Burroughs Welcome, the pharmaceutical company.
An enthusiastic Methodist, he did much work for his local church. He also much enjoyed taking long sea voyages to the West Indies as ship’s doctor. He was married with four children.
Harriet Mary Bousfield, artist 1865-1942
She was born in Bedford, the fifth child of Edward Tenney and Charlotte Bousfield, but the youngest to survive childhood. She received a full education both from a governess and then at a number of different schools, finally in London. She then attended Calderon’s School of Art in Notting Hill, London, for several years being taught by ‘Mr Ridley’ (perhaps Matthew Ridley). She had in all four paintings accepted over the years for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. She had a special ability to reproduce facial likenesses, and painted many portraits of family members both in oil and pastille. She also produced smaller water-colours of landscapes. Unfortunately she was vigorously discouraged by her mother, who believed she should treat her art only as a hobby, and turned to religious and Temperance campaigning, though she continued to paint throughout her life.
She married in her 30s and had four children, though one died almost immediately. Losing her husband early, with her elder sister Lottie she looked after her very long-lived mother in their adjoining homes. In her old age she suffered badly from arthritis.