Benjamin Burgess

1778 - 1864

• Born	26 Aug 1778	Falmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Occupation	Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts   [2]
  	headed a mercantile firm called Benjamin Burgess & Sons
  _UID	F6737073BBE44878A2F90E7CDB983BA6249B
  Died	29 Jan 1864	Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts   [3]
  	Died 83y 3m 3d.
  Notes	"The venerable Benjamin Burgess, founder of the present commercial house of B. Burgess & Sons, was one of our oldest and most esteemed merchants of Boston. There are few of his age and class left. He was born at Sandwich, and commenced business there in 1802, and represented his native town in the legislature as early 1812, and many years after. As soon as the war closed, say in 1816, he transferred his business to Boston, and opened a very active and lucrative trade with Cuba, and from that time forward prosecuted it with great energy, enterprise prosecuted success until he retired from business, about ten years since. In about 1850 he had the good fortune to pass through all the chances of an active mercantile business of more than half a century in duration, without any of those reverses that so often interrupt the career of the best and wisest of our mercantile men; he was, as it often happens, a man of large intelligence, a thorough merchant, and very enterprising and energetic, and of unquestioned integrity. He was the first to open and foster trade with the now flourishing port of Cienfuegos, and he had the honor, too, of taking in the land in abolishing spirit rations on board of our merchant ships, and the mode of doing it was characteristic of the man, he having not only given the men extra pay instead, but extra fare besides. His example was soon followed by the rest of the mercantile community. Mr. Burgess, when he removed to Boston, retained his homestead in Sandwich, on the very spot where his ancestors, before him, had resided since 1638; and after his retirement from activie business had passed his summers there, cultivating his grounds, and has had the gratification of gathering largely from one orchard whcih he planted after he was seventy, and sparingly from another which he planted after he was eighty. His Christian character, like his business character, was quiet and unobtrusive, but constant and all pervading, tempering his whole life to an unruffled genial equanimity that seemed to be never shaken for an instant, so that although he was for a long period and until he resigned, one of the directors fro the whole period of the first charter of the Equitable Insurance Company, and director of the Cape Cod Railroad Company to his death, and in business half a century, it is hazarding but little to say that the had not an ill wisher in the world, but had the love and veneration of all who had ever known him."
  Person ID	I87835	Burgess
  Last Modified	14 Apr 2009

  
  

  Father	Elisha Burgess,   b. 1743, Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts ,   d. 10 Nov 1832, Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts
  Mother	Hannah Nye,   b. 18 Nov 1747, Falmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts ,   d. 9 Dec 1840, Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts
  Married	6 Dec 1770	Falmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts
  Family ID	F32565	Group Sheet

  
  

  Family	Mary Swift,   b. 2 Sep 1782, Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts ,   d. 29 Jan 1861
  Married	3 Jun 1804	Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts   [1]
  Children	> 1. Adeline Burgess,   b. 20 Jun 1805, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts ,   d. 2 Jun 1842, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts   2. Mary Burgess,   b. 2 Sep 1807, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts ,   d. Yes, date unknown   3. Thomas Jefferson Burgess,   b. 10 Feb 1810, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts ,   d. 18 Jul 1843 > 4. Eliza Swift Burgess,   b. 24 Mar 1813, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts ,   d. 26 Dec 1888, Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts > 5. Hepzibah Burgess,   b. 7 Feb 1816, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts ,   d. 16 Feb 1842 > 6. Benjamin Franklin Burgess,   b. 6 Sep 1818, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts ,   d. 5 Oct 1919, Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts > 7. Caroline Beal Burgess,   b. 1 Mar 1821, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts ,   d. 2 Jan 1899, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts
  Last Modified	14 Apr 2009
  Family ID	F48689	Group Sheet

  
  

• Event Map		Born - 26 Aug 1778 - Falmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts Occupation - headed a mercantile firm called Benjamin Burgess & Sons - - Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Married - 3 Jun 1804 - Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts Died - 29 Jan 1864 - Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts  = Link to Google Maps   = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Sources

  [S15] Burgess Genealogy, Ebenezer Burgess, (Boston : Press of T.R. Marvin & Son, 1865), Lee Drew library., 43 (Reliability: 3). [S139] Burgess Genealogy - Hiam, Katharine W. Hiam, (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1997), Lee Drew library., 300 (Reliability: 3). [S1035] Microfilmed Death Records - Massachusetts, State of Massachusetts.