Thomas Bushell (mining engineer)

Thomas Bushell (c. 1593 – 1674)[1] 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.

On Bacon's disgrace Bushell adopted an ascetic vegetarian diet and retired to the Isle of Wight, where he lived for some time disguised as a fisherman.

There he found a spring and rock formation, which he made into an attraction as a grotto, forming the basis of the 'Enstone Marvels', demolished in 1836.

They had formerly been farmed by Sir Hugh Middleton, who sent the silver which he extracted to be coined at the Royal Mint in the Tower of London.

These privileges were confirmed in February 1658 by Richard Cromwell, who also protected and encouraged Bushell in his operations in connection with the lead mines in the forest of Mendip.

For several years as a hermit on the Calf of Man he lived on a strict diet of oil, honey, mustard, herbs, biscuits and water.