Thomas Bushell (mining engineer)

Thomas Bushell (c. 1593 – 1674) was a servant of Francis Bacon who went on to become a mining engineer and defender of Lundy Island for the Royalist cause during the Civil War. He had an interest in solitary and penitential living which has led him to be identified as a forerunner of the secular hermits of the Georgian period.

Thomas Bushell was born around 1593 and was a servant of Bacon's from around 1608 until Bacon's impeachment (when he was a cause of charges of corruption being brought against Bacon). After Bacon's death Bushell moved to the south west of England becoming a mining engineer and master of the mint. He took up residence in Lundy which he defended for the Royalists during the Civil War. Lundy was the last place to surrender at the end of the Civil War.