Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/318

 

 BURGESS, JOHN (d. 1671), ejected minister, was the son of a Devonshire clergyman and a graduate. He obtained the rectory of Ashprington, Devonshire, on the sequestration of John Lethbridge (d. 2 Sept. 1655). It is remarkable that on Burgess's ejection in 1662 the patron, Edward Giles of Bowden, gave him the next presentation, which Burgess disposed of for 500l. He removed to Dartmouth to reside with Allen Geare, M.A., ejected from St. Saviour's (d. December 1662); and afterwards to London, where he had a daughter married to Thomas Brooks. He lived at Hackney, where he and others kept up a small private congregation; and at Islington, where he had a boarding-house connected with John Singleton's school. He was probably an independent. Calamy calls him a man of extraordinary abilities. He died in 1671. Philip Henry gives an account of his funeral at Islington on 7 Sept. 1671, attended by over a hundred ministers.

 BURGESS, JOHN CART (1798–1863), flower and landscape painter, born in 1798, was a grandson of the portrait-painter, [q. v.]. He commenced the profession as a painter of flowers and fruit in water-colours, and first exhibited at the Royal Academy three flower pieces in 1812; at that time residing at 46 Sloane Square, Chelsea. He also exhibited in Suffolk Street and at the British Institution. His works were much admired, and in brilliancy and beauty of execution rivalled those of Van Huysum. Marrying at the age of twenty-seven, the requirements of a growing family compelled him to relinquish painting for the more lucrative occupation of teaching, and for many years he held a prominent position as a master. Among his pupils he numbered several members of the royal family. Burgess died at the residence of his son, Mr. John Burgess, Leamington, on 20 Feb. 1863. In 1811 he published a book on flower-painting and a treatise on perspective which has gone through several editions. Two studies by him are in the British Museum.

 BURGESS, RICHARD (1796–1881), biblical scholar, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated, and was ordained deacon in 1820, priest 1823, by Dr. Vernon-Harcourt, archbishop of York. In 1828 he was domestic chaplain to Lord Aylmer, and chaplain to the English residents at Geneva. In 1831 he became chaplain to a Church of England congregation at Rome. He was made rector of Upper Chelsea in 1836. He continued his incumbency for twenty-five years. In 1861 a testimonial worth 1,200l. was presented to him by his parishioners and friends. Mr. Gladstone, on behalf of the crown, presented him in 1869 to the rectory of Horningsheath-with-Ickworth, near Bury St. Edmunds, and the prebendal stall of Tottenhall in St. Paul's Cathedral was conferred upon him in 1850. He died on 12 April 1881 at Brighton, aged 85. Burgess was honorary secretary to the Foreign Aid Society, honorary member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, corresponding member of the Pontifical Archæological Academy at Rome, and for eight years the honorary secretary to the London Diocesan Board of Education. He was deeply interested in the subject of national education, and wrote several pieces on national schools, school teachers, education by rates or taxes, besides letters to Sir James Graham, Sir George Grey, Dr. Hook, the Bishop of London, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, on kindred subjects. He was a voluminous writer. In addition to a variety of sermons, his chief works are:  'Description of the Circus on the Via Appia near Rome, with some account of the Circensian Games,' Lond. 1828, translated into Italian in 1829 by Giuseppe Porta.  'The Topography and Antiquities of Rome, including the recent discoveries made about the Forum and the Via Sacra,' 2 vols. Lond. 1831.  'Lectures on the Insufficiency of Unrevealed Religion, and on the succeeding influence of Christianity, delivered in the English Chapel at Rome,' Lond. 1832.  'Greece and the Levant, or Diary of a Summer's Excursion,' 2 vols. Lond. 1835.  'An Enquiry into the state of the Church of England Congregations in France, Belgium, and Switzerland,' Lond. 1850.  'Sermons for the Times,' </ol>