Burgess family

The Burgess family papers document three generations of a British family whose members ventured to Persia, Continental Europe and the United States.

The patriarch of the family was Henry Burgess (1781-1863). Born into a Quaker family, he did not practice the religion himself and indeed married an Anglican, Frances Ridsdale (1784-1847). Burgess was an inventory, an economist, commercial investor and editor. The last of these was his most stead profession. From 1827 until approximately 1850 he edited The Bankers' Circular, a paper that he had founded. The Circular attracted a prestigious readership that included the leading politicians of the day. As an investor, he was a co-partner with Baring Brothers in iron mining and steel ventures during the latter part of this life. Products of his career as an inventor include a patented device designed to improve wheeled carriages (1823) and a machine for curing or salting meats (c.1844). As an economist, he devoted much energy to schemes that included "a Plan for obtaining a more speedy postage communication between London and the distant parts of the Kingdom" (1819), a petition before Parliament in the matter of English currency (c.1830), and a study of the tariffs imposed upon imports such as tea, sugar, malt and hops, during 1840s.

The children of Henry and Frances Burgess were: Charles Henry (1805-1854), Edward (1810-1855), Joseph (1813-1832) and George (1817-1900).

In 1828 Charles Burgess went to Persia, initially to join the military service of the Prince Royal. After several months in that capacity, he became convinced that direct trade between England and Persia, via Turkey could succeed. He returned to Britain in 1830 and, with the financial help of his father, purchased British manufactures such as guns, china and chintz to bring back. He was the first British subject to export goods directly from England to Persia. He enlisted the aid of his brother Edward who went to Persia in 1831, never to return.

In 1836, Charles left Persia on one of his trips back to England, entrusted with the money of several members of the royal family and of the government. He did not return. As a result, Edward was held there more or less as a hostage, pending Charles' repayment of the Persian government's moneys. Such repayment never came. Charles' health appears to have broken down and he spent the remaining years of his life moving around Europe from Bern to Marseilles to Leghorn to other health resorts (with occasional visits to England) in search of a lasting cure. He died in 1854, having borrowed heavily from his father for years.

Edward settled in Tabriz and became an employee of the Prince Bahman Meezu's household. In 1844, the Prince made him magistrate of a village of about one thousand inhabitants near Tabriz. He thus became a tax collector and peace keeper. In addition, he translated newspapers and books for the Prince. In a letter to his brother George, he admitted that it would be possible for him to leave Persia by running away, but that he could never do anything so dishonorable. Edward supported Charles' abandoned common-law wife and children as well as his own wife, Anna, an Armenian woman whom he had married in 1851. His son died in infancy. His daughter Fanny, however, survived. In 1855, when Fanny was one year old, Edward at last secured permission to leave Persia for a visit to England with his wife and child. He died en route between Tehran and Tabriz. His widow and daughter visited England at least once in the years that followed, staying with Edward's father.

By then, Henry Burgess was a widower and a father of only one surviving son. Joseph had been killed at age 19 in the Pyrenean War of 1832. In 1840, Frances Burgess had established herself permanently in Brighton while her husband remained in London. With precarious health, she appears not to have strayed from her house. She devoted much time to letter-writing and reading. She was a Victorian gentlewoman who yearned for further intellectual stimulation. "If a craving desire could bring its own fulfillment," she wrote in 1843, "I should have, like Bacon, all learning for my province." She died, after long illness, in 1847.

After a few months working in the Derbyshire Banking Co., George Burgess emigrated to America in 1840. His subsequent professional life was spent as an imported, largely of linens and threads. He initially worked for J. Gihon & Co. in New York and Philadelphia, but eventually set up business for himself in New York and Dundee, Scotland. In 1844 he married an American, Valeria Dean. They had several children, including Thomas F., Lucy, Fanny, and Teddy. George's business brought him frequently to England and Scotland. He was in Dundee when his wife died in 1881. He survived for another 19 years.

From the guide to the Burgess family papers, 1794-1929, 1835-1863, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.)