THOMAS

See also:

• BURGESS (Med. Lat. burgensis, from burgus, a borough, a town)
• BURGESS, DANIEL (1645-1713)
• THOMAS BURGESS (1756–1837)

BURGESS (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 Chuich 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, Emendations in Suidam et Hesychium et alios Lexicographos Graecos; The Bible, and nothing but the Bible, the Religion of the Church of England .