Ruth Bushell
Ruth Bushell lived in the early 1630s in the household of Sir Richard Darley at Buttercrambe, in Yorkshire. The Puritan minister Thomas Shepard, silenced by William Laud, hid in that house for about a year. While he was there he courted Margaret Touteville, a kinswoman of Sir Richard, who became his first wife. The Shepard genealogy of 1886 says Ruth "will in reading the narrative be readily recognized as one of Sir Richard Darley's household, where lived also Margaret, the first wife of Mr. Shepard."
In 1635 she sailed for New England in the Abigail, Robert Hackwell master. The London port book entered her on 2 July 1635: "Ruth Bushell, aged 23." She was listed with John Deyking, 25, and Alice Deyking, 30, under one "Certificate from minister of Shoreditch & Stepney parishes." Emigrants of that year had to bring a minister's certificate that they conformed to the Church of England. In the same ship were Ralph Shepard, 29, his wife Thanks, 23, and their daughter Sarah, 2. Thomas Shepard crossed the same year in the Defence.
At Cambridge she married Edward Mitchelson about 1635 or 1636. In 1637 he became Marshal-General of the colony. Their daughter Ruth was born on 8 November 1638, and four more children followed: Thomas in 1639, Bethia in 1642, Edward in 1644 and Elizabeth in 1646. The family lived at Dunster and Winthrop streets, and from 1650 on Harvard Street.
Thomas Shepard died on 25 August 1649. Her husband was one of the two men who took the inventory of his estate. Shepard's will left "to Ruth Mitchinson the Elder ten pounds." The same will left Samuel Danforth "my velvet cloake and ten pounds," and five pounds to Shepard's cousin Stedman.
In October 1656 her daughter Ruth married John Green. She died on 15 June 1664, "about 52." Her son Edward graduated from Harvard the next year and was lost at sea in 1666.
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Cite: Heirology, "Ruth Bushell (1612-1664)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/ruth-bushell-1612-1664-d6a0f1.