# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bushell, Brown

1904 Errata appended.
​BUSHELL, BROWN (d. 1651), sea captain, son of Nicholas Bushell of Ruswarpe, near Whitby, and Dorothy, daughter of Sir Henry Cholmley (or Cholmondley) of Rooksby, Yorkshire, knight (Harleian MSS. 1487, fol. 464), was one of the garrison that, under the command of his cousin, Sir Hugh Cholmley, held Scarborough for the parliament in 1643. In the March of that year Cholmley determined to give up the castle to the queen, who was then at York. Before he did so, however, he wished to secure some valuable goods he had at Hull, and on 24 March sent his kinsman Bushell thither in a small vessel armed with seven pieces of ordnance. Hotham, who was in command at Hull, took Bushell prisoner, but two days afterwards allowed him to return to Scarborough on his promising to deliver the castle again into the hands of the parliamentarians. When Cholmley, having made his surrender, left for York, Bushell and his brother Henry conspired with the soldiers, who were highly dissatisfied with Cholmley's conduct, and with little difficulty seized the castle for the parliament. Before long, however, Bushell entered into correspondence with the royalists and handed the castle over to them, it was probably in consequence of this action that Sir T. Fairfax on 19 April 1646 was ordered to send him to London to answer a chaige made against Him. Bushell again joined the parliamentarian party, and received the command of a fine ship under Admiral Batten [q. v.] When, early in 1648, the fleet lay in the Downs, Bushell, like divers other captains, delivered his ship to the Prince of Wales. He was apprehended by two men, to whom, on 26 April, the council awarded 20l. for the good service they had done, resolving at the same time to lodge the prisoner in Windsor Castle. As late, however, as 27 Dec. 1649 it is evident that Bushell had not such good quarters, for on that day the council, in oonsequence of a petition received from him, ordered his removal to Windsor, directing the ​governor 'to provide for him as necessary for one of his quality.' On 26 June 1650 it was determined to allow him 5s. a day for his maintenance. The council at first resolved that he should be tried as a pirate by the admiralty court. Now, however, the attorney-general was ordered to consider his offences, with a view to his trial by the high court of justice, and on 7 Sept. witnesses against him were sent for from Scarborough. He was found guilty, and was executed on 29 April 1651. A small medallion portrait of him is given in the frontispiece of Winstanley's 'Loyall Martyrology,' published in 1665.
[Harleian MSS. 1487, fol. 464; Rushworth's Collection, pt. iii. vol. ii. 264, pt. iv. vol. ii. 1070; Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1649–50, 455, 1650 passim, 1651, 5; Whitelocke's Memorials, fols. 143, 302; Winstanley's Loyall Martyrology, 32; Markham's Life of the great Lord Fairfax, 94, 95; Sir Hugh Cholmley's Memoirs, 1; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England (5th ed.), iv. 9.]
W. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.45 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 35 | i | 11 | Bushell, Brown: for April read March |