BURGESS

burgess, thomas (1756-1837), english divine, was born at odiham, in hampshire. he was educated at winchester, and at corpus christi college, oxford. before graduating, he edited a reprint of john burton's _pentalogia_. in 1781 he brought out an annotated edition of richard dawes's _miscellanea critica_ (reprinted, leipzig, 1800). in 1783 he became a fellow of his college, and in 1785 was appointed chaplain to shute barrington, bishop of salisbury, through whose influence he obtained a prebendal stall, which he held till 1803. in 1788 he published his _considerations on the abolition of slavery_, in which he advocated the principle of gradual emancipation. in 1791 he accompanied barrington to durham, where he did evangelistic work among the poorer classes. in 1803 he was appointed to the vacant bishopric of st david's, which he held for twenty years with great success. he founded the society for promoting christian knowledge in the diocese, and also st david's college at lampeter, which he liberally endowed. in 1820 he was appointed first president of the recently founded royal society of literature; and three years later he was promoted to the see of salisbury, over which he presided for twelve years, prosecuting his benevolent designs with unwearied industry. as at st david's, so at salisbury, he founded a church union society for the assistance of infirm and distressed clergymen. he strenuously opposed both unitarianism and catholic emancipation. he died on the 19th of february 1837. a list of his works, which are very numerous, will be found in his biography by j.s. harford (2nd ed., 1841). in addition to those already referred to may be mentioned his _essay on the study of antiquities_, _the first principles of christian knowledge_; _reflections on the controversial writings of dr priestley_, _emendationes in suidam et hesychium et alios lexicographos graecos_; _the bible, and nothing but the bible, the religion of the church of england_. burgess (med. lat. _burgensis_, from _burgus_, a borough, a town), a term, in its earliest sense, meaning an inhabitant of a borough, one who occupied a tenement therein, but now applied solely to a registered parliamentary, or more strictly, municipal voter. an early use of the word was to denote a member elected to parliament by his fellow citizens in a borough. in some of the american colonies (_e.g._ virginia), a "burgess" was a member of the legislative body, which was termed the "house of burgesses." previously to the municipal reform act 1835, burgess was an official title in some english boroughs, and in this sense is still used in some of the states of the united states, as in connecticut, new jersey, pennsylvania. _the burgess-roll_ is the register or official list of burgesses in a borough. burgh [bourke, burke], the name of an historic irish house, associated with connaught for more than seven centuries. it was founded by william de burgh, brother of hubert de burgh (_q.v._). before the death of henry ii. (1189) he received a grant of lands from john as lord of ireland. at john's accession (1199) he was installed in thomond and was governor of limerick. in 1199-1201 he was supporting in turn cathal carrach and cathal crovderg for the native throne, but he was expelled from limerick in 1203, and, losing his connaught, though not his munster estates, died in 1205. his son richard, in 1227, received the land of "connok" [connaught], as forfeited by its king, whom he helped to fight. from 1228 to 1232 he held the high office of justiciar of ireland. in 1234 he sided with the crown against richard, earl marshal, who fell in battle against him. dying in 1243, he was succeeded as lord of connaught by his son richard, and then (1248) by his younger son walter, who carried on the family warfare against the native chieftains, and added greatly to his vast domains by obtaining (c. 1255) from prince edward a grant of "the county of ulster," in consequence of which he was styled later earl of ulster. at his death in 1271, he was succeeded by his son richard as 2nd earl. in 1286 richard ravaged and subdued connaught, and deposed bryan o'neill as chief native king, substituting a nominee of his own. the native king of connaught was also attacked by him, in favour of that branch of the o'conors whom his own family supported. he led his forces from ireland to support edward i. in his scottish campaigns, and on edward bruce's invasion of ulster in 1315 richard marched against him, but he had given his daughter elizabeth in marriage to robert bruce, afterwards king of scotland, about 1304. occasionally summoned to english parliaments, he spent most of his forty years of activity in ireland, where he was the greatest noble of his day, usually fighting the natives or his anglo-norman rivals. the patent roll of 1290 shows that in addition to his lands in ulster, connaught and munster, he had held the isle of man, but had surrendered it to the king. his grandson and successor william, the 3rd earl (1326-1333), was the son of john de burgh by elizabeth, lady of clare, sister and co-heir of the last clare earl of hertford (d. 1314). he married a daughter of henry, earl of lancaster, and was appointed lieutenant of ireland in 1331, but was murdered in his 21st year, leaving a daughter, the sole heiress, not only of the de burgh possessions, but of vast clare estates. she was married in childhood to lionel, son of edward iii., who was recognized in her right as earl of ulster, and their direct representative, the duke of york, ascended the throne in 1461 as edward iv., since when the earldom of ulster has been only held by members of the royal family. on the murder of the 3rd earl (1333), his male kinsmen, who had a better right, by native irish ideas, to the succession than his daughter, adopted irish names and customs, and becoming virtually native chieftains succeeded in holding the bulk of the de burgh territories. their two main branches were those of "macwilliam eighter" in southern connaught, and "macwilliam oughter" to the north of them, in what is now mayo. the former held the territory of clanricarde, lying in the neighbourhood of galway, and in 1543 their chief, as ulick "bourck, _alias_ makwilliam," surrendered it to henry