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Cyrus Bustill (February 2, 1732 1806) was an African American Brewing and baker, abolitionist and community leader. "Cyrus Bustill (1732-1806) Historical Marker", in "Explore PA History." Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, retrieved online February 23, 2019.
A notable business owner in the African American community in Philadelphia, he also became a founding member of the Free African Society in the city.
While some sources indicate that Cyrus Bustill used his apprenticeship wages to purchase his freedom in 1774, others state that Prior liberated Cyrus by manumission in 1769, which would have likely made Cyrus one of the 104 enslaved Africans described in records of the Burlington Quarterly Meeting of Friends as having been freed by Quakers between 1763 and 1796.
By 1791, Cyrus Bustill was recorded as owning twelve acres in the black settlement of Guineatown between the Abington and Cheltenham townships in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He married Elizabeth Morey (1746–1827), a woman of Native American and European descent. Their children include Grace Douglass, David Bowser Bustill, and Mary Bustill.
Considered the founder of the prominent Bustill family, his descendants include Paul Robeson (1898–1976), David Bustill Bowser (1820–1900) Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806–1882), Robert Douglass Jr. (1809–1887) and Gertrude Bustill Mossell (1855–1948). "BUSTILL-Bowser-Asbury Family" (2015), Manuscript Division, Paper 24, p. 2.
Cyrus Bustill died in 1806. His grave is located at the Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.
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