properly equipped college on the Oxford and Cambridge model, for the education of his clergy, both in general subjects and in theology. He regularly set aside part of his income for the purpose, and persuaded many of his clergy to devote a tenth of their small means to the same object. By 1820 he had collected 11,000l., and, having obtained grants from the king and the universities, in 1822 he laid the foundation-stone of St. David‘s College at Lampeter in Cardiganshire. His translation to another see occurred before the college was opened in 1827; but he continued to watch over it with the greatest interest, and left in his will considerable legacies to an institution which he regarded as the chief work of his life, and which has had an important induence in spreading higher educacation in Wales.
Meanwhile Burgess continued to perform his duties ‘with a zeal worth of the best ages of christianity.' His confirmations and ordinations were conducted with a carefulness quite remarkable at that time. By a large personal sacrifice of fines for renewing leases, he permanently increased the income of his see. His attendance at Eisteddfodau showed his desire to approach the national sentiment of his flock, and he refused to induct clergy ignorant of Welsh into Welsh-speaking parishes. In 1804 he took a prominent share in establishing the Bible Society. In 1823 he drew up, at the king's command, a plan for the foundation of the Royal Society of Literature, of which he was the first president. He still found time for copious literary work, consisting of charges, sermons, devotional treatises, grammars, exhortatious to the study of Hebrew, fragments of biblical criticism, of controversial theology and ecclesiastical politics, and attempts at ecclesiastical history. At one time he wrote tracts, which essayed to prove the Pauline origin, the ‘evangelical’ doctrine, and the independence of Rome of the old British church. At another he attempted to vindicate the authenticity of 1 John v. 7 against more powerful critics than himself. He wrote and spoke in parliament against the catholic claims. Between 1814 and 1820 he denounced the unitarians in a long series of tracts. For several years in succession he exhausted the patience of the Royal Society of Literature by a demonstration that the newly discovered treatise ‘De Doctrina Christiana’ could not be written by Milton, because its orthodoxy on the question of the Trinity was more than doubtful. In nearly all that he wrote Burgess had some cherished principle or opinion to defend, for the sake of which he threw away dislxetion and impartiality. During his long career he published more than a hundred works; a list of which can be found in Harford’s ‘Life’ (appendix and ch. xxxiii,), and which occupy more than fifteen pages of the British Museum Catalogue.
In 1825 Burgess was translated to the richer see of Salisbury, and left some of his most important works at St. David’s in an unfinished state. But his health needed an easier post, and the complaints of his in-attention to formal business in his new see show that at the age of nearly seventy his great activity was beginning to abate. He, however, made his mark upon his new diocese, as well as on his old one. In 1829 he fought desperately the last battle against catholic emancipation by letters to the Duke of Wellington, published in the newspapers, and by a violent harangue in the House of Lords. He established in Salisbury a church union society, analogous to that in St. David’s, and showed great energy in visiting, confirming, educating, and ordaining. For several years he suffered from weakness of vision, and in 1835 he was seized with an apoplectic fit. His health now rapidly sank. He still had enough energy to protest in 1836 against Lord Melbourne’s Irish church policy. He died on Sunday, 19 Feb., and was buried at Salisbury on 27 Feb. 1837.
[Harford's Life of Bishop Burges.]
BURGESS, THOMAS, D.D. (1791–1854), catholic prelate, was born in Lancashire 1 Oct. 1791, and educated at Ampleforth, where he became a professed monk of the order of St. Benedict 13 Oct. 1807. In 1830 he was secularised, and in conjunction with Father Edward Metcalfe he endeavoured to raise up a new collegiate establishment at Prior Park, near Bath. After he had stayed there some time Bishop Baines transferred him to Cannington, then appointed him to the charge of Portland Chapel, Bath (1832), and finally ordered him to Monmouth. On the resignation of Dr. Hendren, the first bishop of Clifton, Burgess was elected to 'succeed him, and was consecrated 27 July 1851. His death occurred at Westbury-on-Trym 27 Nov. 1854.
[Tablet, December 1854, pp. 760, 773, 788; Catholic Directory (1854), 77 ; Gent. Mag. new ser. xliii. 109; O1iver‘s Catholic Religion in Cornwall, 255.]
BURGESS, WILLIAM (1749?–1812), painter, son of Thomas Burgess (fl. 1786) [q. v.], achieved his first success as early as 1761, when he was awarded a premium by the Society of Arts. ‘He exhibited portraits
