Thomas Bushby was born in Sompting about 1844, son of Thomas and Helen Bushby. Thomas senior was born in Lancing in 1806 and died in Heene in 1854.
In the 1861 census, aged 17, in Heene Lane (now Heene Road), son Thomas was living with his widowed mother, Helen, who is described as a Farmer and Market Gardener of 55 acres, employing 18 Labourers and 6 boys! Her household consisted of 3 sons, 2 daughters and a 38 year-old cousin, Frank Bushby, who was managing the farm and garden, plus 20 year-old Jane Brown, a House Servant, born Worthing.
(Helen married Frank, her husband's cousin, in 1861)
Thomas married Annie (nee Hack) in Brighton in 1866.
In 1871 they were living in Anchor Road, Worthing now Lyndhurst Road with their first three children, son Arthur Ernest, 3, daughters Jennie Rose, 2, and Agnes May, 5 months. Thomas was a Gardener as he was 10 years later, then living in Park Terrace, with Annie, Arthur, Jennie, May (Agnes), plus Thomas, Frederick and Evelyn.
In 1881 and 1891 they were living at Heene Farm - also known as Bushby's Farm which was where numbers 131 and 141 Heene Road are now some of the old flint walls still stand. Thomas was then a Market Gardener and Nurseryman, with sons Arthur, Thomas and Frederick as his Assistants. They had one Domestic Servant, Fanny Grinsted from Nuthurst.
In 1901 the family were living at The Homestead, Heene. (In Pigot's 1823 Directory, there was a Homestead in Downview Rd and another in St Botolph's Rd.) Thomas was now a Farmer and Fruit Grower, Employer, with Annie, daughters Jennie and Evelyn at home, single, and a 17 year-old Domestic Servant, Annie Driscoll.
In 1911 they were living at Heene Croft, in Heene Road. Croft Cottage is the flint-walled house with barred windows in Heene Road, just above Heene Gallery. It is likely that this is the same place as Heene Croft. Thomas was a Market Gardener, living with Annie, daughters Jennie, Agnes Mary, now a widow, and Evelyn Annie Buckeridge (married in 1905 to Malcolm Buckeridge. They had a daughter, Vera, in 1907, but she died in 1908. Malcolm was living in London, as a single man, in 1911).