Burton, William W.

William W. Burton (d. 1882) was born in England and became a U.S. citizen in 1861. The same year, he married Virginia Baptista, a Portugese immigrant. William Burton was a house painter based in Manhattan. The Burton family lived at 436 Lafayette Avenue in what is now the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. The couple had five children: Percival, Virginia E., Minnie, Charles, and Sidney. Percival Burton (b. 1879) married Josie E. Newcombe, and the couple had one son, Robert Burton.

Virginia Baptista was born in Madeira, Portugal, and was separated from her family as they emigrated from Portugal to Trinidad. According to correspondence, she was stolen by a childless couple who eventually settled in New York. Twenty-five years later, Baptista was able to locate her family in Madeira, but lost permanent contact with her mother. Her father died two months after his family left Portugal.