Background
His paternal grandparents had been free: his grandfather gained his freedom from slavery as a young man in the 1750s, and his grandmother Elizabeth Morrey was of English-Lenape descent and always free, resulting in her children being born free. Elizabeth Morrey was also mixed-race, the daughter of Satterthwait, a Lenape woman, and Richard Morrey, an English immigrant.
His father David Bustill was born free as the mixed-race son of Elizabeth Morrey (1745-1827) and Cyrus Bustill (1732-1806) (born in Springfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey). He was of Anglo-American, African and Lenape ancestry.
His parents married on August 6, 1773 in Christ Church, Philadelphia.
As his mother was of English-Lenape ancestry, she was free, and her children were born free, according to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, used in slavery law. His father Cyrus gained his freedom from slavery from service to his last master.
Cyrus Bustill was born into slavery.
He was the mixed-race child of an enslaved woman and Samuel Bustill, a white lawyer who became active in colonial politics and was a "clerk to the council". Samuel Bustill later married Grace Gardiner and had additional children with her.
Cyrus Bustill gained freedom from a master who rewarded him for several years of service.
He moved into Philadelphia, where he was a baker. In 1787 he was one of the founders of the Free African Society, the first black mutual aid society.