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Creator
Burgess family
Call number
MssCol 431
Physical description
4.25 linear feet (9 boxes, 2 vols)
Language
English
Preferred Citation

Burgess Family Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

The Burgess family papers document three generations of an English family involved in overseas commerce. Charles Henry Burgess (1806-1854) was the first British subject to export good directly from England to Persia. The papers contain correspondence, diaries, financial records, art work and other materials documenting the personal life and commercial activities of the family members. The papers provide abundant information on a rich variety of British, Anglo-Persian and Anglo-American topics.

Biographical/historical information

The Burgess family papers document three generations of a British family whose members ventured to Persia, Continental Europe and the United States.

The patriarch of the family was Henry Burgess (1781-1863). Born into a Quaker family, he did not practice the religion himself and indeed married an Anglican, Frances Ridsdale (1784-1847). Burgess was an inventory, an economist, commercial investor and editor. The last of these was his most stead profession. From 1827 until approximately 1850 he edited The Bankers' Circular, a paper that he had founded. The Circular attracted a prestigious readership that included the leading politicians of the day. As an investor, he was a co-partner with Baring Brothers in iron mining and steel ventures during the latter part of this life. Products of his career as an inventor include a patented device designed to improve wheeled carriages (1823) and a machine for curing or salting meats (c.1844). As an economist, he devoted much energy to schemes that included "a Plan for obtaining a more speedy postage communication between London and the distant parts of the Kingdom" (1819), a petition before Parliament in the matter of English currency (c.1830), and a study of the tariffs imposed upon imports such as tea, sugar, malt and hops, during 1840s.

The children of Henry and Frances Burgess were: Charles Henry (1805-1854), Edward (1810-1855), Joseph (1813-1832) and George (1817-1900).

In 1828 Charles Burgess went to Persia, initially to join the military service of the Prince Royal. After several months in that capacity, he became convinced that direct trade between England and Persia, via Turkey could succeed. He returned to Britain in 1830 and, with the financial help of his father, purchased British manufactures such as guns, china and chintz to bring back. He was the first British subject to export goods directly from England to Persia. He enlisted the aid of his brother Edward who went to Persia in 1831, never to return.

In 1836, Charles left Persia on one of his trips back to England, entrusted with the money of several members of the royal family and of the government. He did not return. As a result, Edward was held there more or less as a hostage, pending Charles' repayment of the Persian government's moneys. Such repayment never came. Charles' health appears to have broken down and he spent the remaining years of his life moving around Europe from Bern to Marseilles to Leghorn to other health resorts (with occasional visits to England) in search of a lasting cure. He died in 1854, having borrowed heavily from his father for years.

Edward settled in Tabriz and became an employee of the Prince Bahman Meezu's household. In 1844, the Prince made him magistrate of a village of about one thousand inhabitants near Tabriz. He thus became a tax collector and peace keeper. In addition, he translated newspapers and books for the Prince. In a letter to his brother George, he admitted that it would be possible for him to leave Persia by running away, but that he could never do anything so dishonorable. Edward supported Charles' abandoned common-law wife and children as well as his own wife, Anna, an Armenian woman whom he had married in 1851. His son died in infancy. His daughter Fanny, however, survived. In 1855, when Fanny was one year old, Edward at last secured permission to leave Persia for a visit to England with his wife and child. He died en route between Tehran and Tabriz. His widow and daughter visited England at least once in the years that followed, staying with Edward's father.

By then, Henry Burgess was a widower and a father of only one surviving son. Joseph had been killed at age 19 in the Pyrenean War of 1832. In 1840, Frances Burgess had established herself permanently in Brighton while her husband remained in London. With precarious health, she appears not to have strayed from her house. She devoted much time to letter-writing and reading. She was a Victorian gentlewoman who yearned for further intellectual stimulation. "If a craving desire could bring its own fulfillment," she wrote in 1843, "I should have, like Bacon, all learning for my province." She died, after long illness, in 1847.

After a few months working in the Derbyshire Banking Co., George Burgess emigrated to America in 1840. His subsequent professional life was spent as an imported, largely of linens and threads. He initially worked for J. Gihon & Co. in New York and Philadelphia, but eventually set up business for himself in New York and Dundee, Scotland. In 1844 he married an American, Valeria Dean. They had several children, including Thomas F., Lucy, Fanny, and Teddy. George's business brought him frequently to England and Scotland. He was in Dundee when his wife died in 1881. He survived for another 19 years.

Scope and arrangement

The Burgess family papers shed light on the personal and commercial activities of three generations of the Burgess family. These papers, chiefly correspondence, begin in 1794 with the collection's first letter from Henry Burgess, and continue through 1929, with the last letter from Henry's granddaughter, Fanny Burgess Bottin. The bulk of the papers falls between 1835 and 1863, the latter being the year of Henry Burgess' death.

The family correspondence is the centerpiece of this collection. After the four Burgess sons were full grown, no member of the family lived for long in close proximity to the other. Thus interfamily correspondence is extensive.

The papers offer details on a rich variety of British, Anglo-Persian and Anglo-American topics. Henry Burgess' papers, 1794-1863, provide a depth of detail on the monetary, fiscal and commercial policies of the British governments, particularly during the second quarter of the 19th century. The correspondence documents his attempts to gain the attention of the elite ranks of government via his suggestions regarding those policies. That he was at least partially successful is evident from the responses contained in letters from such notables as Lord Stanhope, George Canning, John Gladstone, and Lord Western. The bulk of his papers fall after 1840.

The papers of Frances Ridsdale Burgess depict the life of an invalid, intellectually thirsty Victorian gentlewoman, whose quests are all conducted within the confines of her house in Brighton. Her papers extend from 1827-1847, the bulk being from the last two years.

The papers of Charles Burgess and of Edward Burgess are a mine of firsthand information on Persia from 1828-1855. Anglo-Persian commercial and political relations and the changeable political conditions within Persia during that time are clarified. The letters written by each of the brothers give highly specific detail about their lives in the military service of various princes and as British merchants in Tabriz and Tehran. Letters from Charles after his departure from Persia in 1836 illustrate his wanderings form one continental watering hold to another until his death in 1854. Edward's letters, offering the greatest amount of detail on Persian life, continue until his death in 1844. The contrast between an opportunistic, untrustworthy Englishman (Charles) and the paradigm of the true noble gentleman (Edward) may be observed in a comparison of their papers.

Joseph Burgess' short life has left behind papers chiefly valuable for demonstrating the influence of early 19th century education upon the mind of a young Englishman: the formation of his attitudes upon such matters as England's status in the world, the usefulness of knowing French and Latin, and the ritual of dueling. Schoolboy writings of Edward and George likewise tell much of an English boy's outlook in the second decade of the 1800s.

Aspects of the life of a businessman transplanted from England to the United States are illustrated in George Burgess' papers, c.1830-1888. His correspondence, the most extensive in the collection, and his account books and diary of 1840-1843 leave many impressions of the life of a man in the textile importing trade, as well as hints of his personal life. Little information or opinion is offered, however, on U.S. politics or upheavals. George Burgess' diary and correspondence show a friendship with Mrs. John James (Lucy) Audubon that begins in 1840 and continues until her death in 1874.

The collection is arranged into six major sections, for the papers of each member of the immediate Burgess family. Each section includes the family member's correspondence arranged in chronological order. Letters exchanged between family members are filed with the papers of the writer rather than by recipient. Other series include legal and commercial papers, diaries, and personal notes, also arranged chronologically. The only material not divided by family member is a series of photographs, approximately 70 original watercolors and sketches, mostly unsigned, and genealogical material in photostat. The artwork reveals the Burgess family's strong gift for draftsmanship.

The Burgess family papers are a rich and compelling source for research into 19th century life, from the familial scene to the wider stage on which English values were demonstrated.

The Burgess family papers are arranged in seven series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Mrs. Thomas Foljambe Burgess, 1938; 1956-1958

Processing information

Processed by Margaret Heilbrun; revised by Claudia Funke; machine readable finding aid created by Melanie A. Yolles.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

Alternative form available

Persian letters of Charles and Edward Burgess (Boxes 5 and 6) available on microfilm. Transcriptions of these letters, introduced and edited by Benjamin Schwartz have been published in the Bulletin of The New York Public Library, volume 45.