Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/319

 Lond. 1851.  ‘The Confessional,’ Lond. 1852.  ‘Constantinople, and Greek Christianity,’ Lond. 1855.  ‘A City for the Pope, or the Solution of the Roman Question,’ Lond. 1800.

 BURGESS, THOMAS (fl. 1786), painter, received his art education at the St. Martin's Lane academy, and on becoming in 1766 a member of the Incoporated Society of Artists, sent to its exhibitions numerous portraits, conversation-pieces, and studies of various life. In 1778, when living in Kemp’s Row, Chelsea, he was represented for the first time at the Royal Academy by three pictures, ‘William the Conqueror dismounted by his eldest Son,’ ‘Hannibal swearing Enmity to the Romans,’ and ‘Our Saviour.s Appearance to Mary Magdalen.’ He afterwards exhibited a portrait of himself and some landscapes. In 1786 appeared ‘The Death of Athelwold,’ his last contribution to the Academy. As a teacher Burgess attained a high reputation, and for some time kept a drawing school in Maiden Lane which had considerable success.

 BURGESS, THOMAS (1784?–1807), painter, a son of (d. 1812) [q. v.], and grandson of (fl. 1786) [q. v.], made his first appearance at the Royal Academy in 1802, when he contributed 'Market Gardener's House at Walham Green.’ In 1803 he exhibited ‘Landscape and Flowers;’ in 1804, ‘Ruins of a Fire in Soho;’ and in 1805 and 1806, ‘Derbyshire and Devonshire Views.’ Of a delicate constitution, he was attacked with consumption, and died at his father’s house in Sloane Square, Chelsea, on Nov. 1807, aged 23, an artist of great promise.

 BURGESS, THOMAS, D.D, (1756–1837), successively bishop of St. David's and Salisbury, born 18 Nov. 1756, was the son of a grocer of Odiham in Hampshire. He was sent in 1763 to Odiham grammar school, and thence in 1768 to Winchester. In 1775 he became a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1777, while still an undergraduate, he re-edited Burton’s ‘Pentalogia,’ he took his B.A. on 17 Dec. 1778, won a prize essay in 1780, published a new edition of Dawes's ‘Miscellanea Critica,’ which won for him the friendship of Tyrwhitt, and in 1782 took his M.A., and became a tutor of his college. In 1783 he was elected to a fellowship. In 1784 he was ordained deacon and priest by Bishop Cornwall of Whnchester. In 1786 he was a pointed examining chaplain to Bishop Shute Barringion of Salisbury. Up to 1791 he continued to reside at Oxford, publishing various works on points of scholarship; but he gradually ‘turned his attention to sacred studies’—learnt Hebrew, and ‘imbibed deep and serious views of divine truth.’ He assisted in the promotion of Sunday schools in the diocese of Salisbury, wrote a pamphlet against slavery and the slave trade (1788), and became the friend of Hannah More and other prominent members of the evangelical party. In 1791 Bishop Barrington was translated to Durham, and Burgess, still remaining his chaplain, quitted Oxford for the north. In 179-1 he was appointed by the bishop to one of the valuable prebends of Durham Cathedral, and in 1795 to the ‘sweet and delightful’ living of Winston in the same county. In 1799 he married a Miss Bright. He continued to publish various treatises on classical and devotional subjects, and took a prominent share in all religious and educational movements. In June 1803 his old friend Addington, then prime minister, appointed him bishop of St. David's.

The bishopric of St. David’s was at that time hardly worth 1,200l. a year, and, being regarded merely as a stepping-stone to further promotion, its occupants not unfrequently completely neglected the duties of their office. But Burgess’s continued tenure of his Durham prebend gave him an adequate income, and he devoted himself with such zeal to the reformation of his diocese as to make a deep mark on the history of the Welsh church. He found the clergy ill educated, careless of their duties, often drunken and immoral. The livings were too poor to attract university men, and a year at the grammar school of Ystradmeurig was thought enough to qualify a youth fresh from the plough, and imperfectly acquainted with the English language, for holy orders. Burgess’s first step to improve classical education was to license four grammar schools, at which seven years’ study was required before ordination. In 1804 he established the ‘Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and Church Union in the Diocese of St, David's,’ which aimed at raising the standard of classical education, at providing English and Sunday schools for the poor, at spreading religious books, and at founding libraries and a superannuation fund for the poorer clergy. Before long the bishop began to collect subscriptions with a view to establishing a