The Armourer
Oil on canvas. About 1874. Private collection.
The picture probably shows Richard Bullivant who was the town armourer at Nottingham at the time of James I, as Bussey imagined him. Bullivant is said to be the first person in Nottingham to have smoked tobacco and the man in the picture is smoking a pipe. In 1621 Richard Bullivant became Nottingham’s first postmaster.
The painting was either bought by or given to the Rev Fred Binns who was minister of the St James Street Congregational Church in Nottingham between 1874 and 1878. He migrated to Australia in 1890 where he became a senior member of the Congregational Church. One of his sons, Kenneth Binns CBE became Australia's first National Librarian. The picture is still in Australia.
Bussey did at least one other picture on the same subject. 'Richard Bullyvant' exhibited in 1882 was said to show the town armourer in the time of James I. Then at Bussey's posthumous exhibition in 1894 the catalogue lists (with water colours and drawings): 'No. 65 - Bullivant the Town Armourer: the first man who smoked tobacco in Nottingham. Lent by Councillor J H Brown'