Kentucky Ancestors, Volume 46, Number 2 - Kentucky Historical ...

streets and an orphanage opened there on 1 October
1835 with six children. John Bustard provided an
endowment of $10,000 for the orphanage and it was
one of the achievements mentioned on his memorial
in Cave Hill Cemetery. The orphanage later moved
to Fifth Street near Chestnut Street and later to
College Street near Floyd Street. Eventually it moved
to Frankfort Avenue and Crabb Lane and may have
evolved into the Orphanage of the Good Shepherd. 15
Another example of Bustard’s concern for others was
a will made in 1838 by Elizabeth Collins, witnessed
by James Guthrie, in which Collins left her estate to
John Bustard to be used for the care of her son, James
C. Johnson. The will also directed that a trust was
to be established by Bustard for the future heirs of
Johnson. 16
In 1839, Ebenezer Bustard, age twenty-four, son
of George Bustard, John Bustard’s older brother,
left Ireland and came to Louisville to assist his aging
uncle in business. At first the arrangement may
have been strained because the Louisville Directory
for the year 1841 lists Ebenezer Bustard working as
a clerk for F. T. Seawell and Company located at the
corner of Market and Fourth streets. 17 It may have
been that Ebenezer, always regarded by the family as
“colorful,” had an independent streak to his character
or that working in another firm other than the
family business was part of his learning experience.
Nevertheless, when John Bustard died in Louisville
on 28 November 1842, he bequeathed to his “sister
Margaret Bustard all of the personal estate, including
bank stock, money, bonds, notes, household furniture
and all other goods and chattels, and also including
a negro woman Clarinda.” In addition the dwelling
house and lot on Walnut Street were left to Margaret
who was named executrix of the will along with two
executors, Abraham Hite and Samuel S. Nichols. Ten
thousand dollars was provided for the benefit and
use of Ebenezer Bustard. The remaining “residue”
of the estate was to be divided into thirds, one
third to Margaret Bustard, one third to be equally
divided among the children of his brother George
Bustard in Ireland, and the remaining third to his
sister “Catherine Lynch and her six children,” also in
Ireland. The will specified that the latter third was to
be invested “in a way that will yield $500.00 a year
for Catherine Lynch with any amount above $500.00
interest to be divided among her children.” 18
Following the death of John Bustard the
70 | Kentucky Ancestors
properties he owned in Louisville were maintained for
the benefit of his heirs by the executrix and executors
of his will and Margaret Bustard continued to live
in the dwelling on Walnut Street. Sometime in the
mid-1840s, probably 1845, she visited her relatives in
Ireland and no doubt delivered a gold watch which
according to John Bustard’s will was to be purchased
and presented to George Bustard’s widow as a token
of “respect for her.” 19 Upon returning to Louisville,
Margaret brought her niece and namesake, Margaret
Lynch, to live with her. Soon after the arrival of
Margaret Lynch in Louisville and much to the
displeasure of his aunt, Ebenezer Bustard married his
sixteen-year old cousin even though he was fourteen
years older than the young girl.
Margaret Bustard continued to live in Louisville
and possibly witnessed the nativist upheavals and
riots of the 1850s. The date of her final departure
from the city is not known, but it was around 1860
when she returned to Donegal. Her name does not
appear in the 1860 U.S. census for Jefferson County.
It is known that she financially helped a relative
purchase land shortly after returning to Ireland and
that she was living at Belleville House in Donegal
after 1860. Several years before leaving Louisville
she made a will which was recorded on 1 June 1852.
Her will declared that the house and property on the
south side of Walnut Street along with its contents
was bequeathed to her nephew, Ebenezer Bustard.
Provisions were made for both the then living and the
future children of her nephew as well as the daughters
of Catherine Lynch upon death of her sister. 20
One interesting part of Margaret Bustard’s
will dealt with the slaves she owned. Because the
legislature of the commonwealth of Kentucky, in
1851, required that all newly freed slaves must leave
the state, Margaret Bustard directed that at her death
all “my slaves . . . shall be entitled to freedom,” and
that any expenses be paid necessary to “remove them
to a state or country where they can be set free and
enjoy their liberty.” 21 The final deposition of these
slaves is unknown and there is no evidence that
the will was ever probated. It is possible, as will
be shown, that some of her slaves or their children
remained with the family during the Civil War and
afterward.
After Margaret Bustard left Louisville, Ebenezer
Bustard continued to manage the family business in
the city, including the operation of the Bustard store