Busby, John

Singer

Collection date: Sept 1910

Area: Warwickshire

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John Busby near Henley-in-Arden: age 68, 1 song ‘Blow the winds I Ho’ (FT2533) on 23 Sept 1910: 9 miles N of Stratford: This sea shanty is often known by the alternative title 'Ten Thousand Miles Away' (Roud 1778).

John Busby was born in Merton, Oxfordshire in October qr 1843. There are no details of his baptism and therefore of his parents. According to the 1851 he was looked after by his grandparents Thomas Busby, agricultural labourer and his wife Elizabeth. John left home early and initially worked as a carter. He had became a 'roadman' by the 1901 census.

He was married twice – by his first wife Rachel he had 2 children and they lived first at Norton Lindsey and then at Wolverton, nr Stratford-on-Avon; his second wife Leah was a widow bringing 2 step-children. In the 1921 census John and Leah Busby were still living at Wolverton.

John Busby died in April qr 1930 (3a 1218).