Burgwyn family.

Biographical notes:

Members of the Burgwyn family of Northampton County, N.C., were descendants of John Burgwin (1731-1803), who came to North Carolina from Wales in 1751. The spelling of the family name was changed to Burgwyn by Burgwin's son John Fanning (1783-1864). The Burgwyns were prosperous planters in the northeastern part of the state. Henry King Burgwyn (1813-1877), son of John Fanning Burgwyn, was the owner of Thornbury, a plantation on the Roanoke River in Northampton County.

Henry King Harry Burgwyn, Jr. (1841-1863), known as The Boy Colonel, was the oldest son of Henry King Burgwyn and his wife, the former Anna Greenough (1817-1887). He was one of the youngest colonels in the Civil War. He studied at West Point from 1856 to 1857, graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1857, and from Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Va., in 1861. At age nineteen he was elected lieutenant colonel of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina Regiment of the Confederate Army. This regiment, whose colonel was Zebulon B. Vance, was involved in battles in coastal and eastern North Carolina and in the Petersburg-Richmond area of Virginia. When Vance resigned to become governor of North Carolina in the late summer of 1862, Burgwyn was promoted to colonel. He was killed in the Battle of Gettysburg, 1 July 1863.

Henry King Burgwyn's second son, William Hyslop Sumner Burgwyn, was born 23 July 1845. He served in Company H, Thirty-fifth North Carolina Regiment. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1868 and from Harvard Law School in 1870. He practiced law in Baltimore, Maryland, until his return to North Carolina in 1882. While in Baltimore, he entered Washington Medical University. Although he received an M.D. in 1876, he did not apply for a license to practice medicine.

In 1882 W. H. S. Burgwyn settled in Henderson, N.C. There he established a private bank, W. H. S. Burgwyn and Co. In 1884 it became the Bank of Henderson with Burgwyn as its first president. Burgwyn also established a tobacco factory, an electric light system, and water works in Henderson. He served as national bank examiner for the southern states from 1893 to 1901. After his resignation from that position, he was founder and president of banks in Weldon, Rich Square, Ayden, Rocky Mount, and Jackson, all in North Carolina. He also established banks in Roanoke Rapids and Halifax, North Carolina, and a bank in Florida. Known as an excellent orator, Burgwyn delivered many speeches throughout North Carolina. He served as chairman of Stockholders and president of the Board of Directors of Henderson Female College from 1886 to 1891. He married Margaret Carlisle Dunlop on 21 November 1876. He and his wife had no children. Burgwyn died on 3 January 1913.

Two other sons of Henry King Burgwyn and Anna Greenough also lived in Northampton County. George Pollock Burgwyn was born 14 May 1847. He attended the University of North Carolina from 1863 to 1864. On 27 May 1869, he married Emma Wright Ridley, the daughter of Thomas Ridley. Burgwyn owned lands in Northampton and Warren counties. He was a merchant and proprietor of Ball Hill Mills, Odom, North Carolina, and Gee Farms, Jackson, North Carolina. He died on 5 January 1907. John Alveston Burgwyn (1850-1898) was a planter, merchant, and Northampton County official.

Thomas Williams Mason Long (1886-1941) married Maria Greenough Burgwyn in 1910. Long, born in Northampton County, N.C., was the son of L. M. and Betty Mason Long and the brother of W. Lunsford Long. He was a physician trained at the University of North Carolina, V.P.I., and the University College of Medicine in Richmond, Va., and was respected for his work in public health. Long was also active in politics, serving as mayor of Roanoke Rapids, N.C., 1922-1930, and in the state senate in 1933, 1937, and 1941, where he sponsored many bills relating to public health.

Sources: Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Volume 1, A-C, William S. Powell, editor; and documents in this collection.

From the guide to the Burgwyn Family Papers, 1787-1987, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)