Histories

He was probably bom between 1650-1670 (perhaps closer to the latter date), if he is contemporary with his friend (or employer?), Jeremiah Bronaugh Sr. (1670-1749). William Burges appears in one known legal record: his noncupative (deathbed verbal) will is recorded on page 89 of Richmond Co. Will Book #3, dated 23 Apr. 1712 O.S., proven on 4 June 1712 O.S. In it he identified four surviving children (there may have been others who had already left home): Edward, a son under the age of 21; Elizabeth and Mary, two unmarried daughters over the age of 16; and Sarah, an unmarried daughter under the age of 16. His accounting mentioned no land, only beds, furniture, a mare, an "old sword," unspecified books, and various stock and farm implements. William lived in St. Marie's [sic] Parish, which covered a large part of Richmond County. His two underaged children were left to the care of Bronaugh, who was named administrator of William's estate. The document was witnessed by Richard and Rebekah Copley, husband and wife. One may infer from this brief record that William Burges was a farm laborer or overseer or craftsman (unlikely), that his wife had predeceased him, that he was literate, that he or someone else in his family had been a soldier (possibly a professional), and that no surviving close relatives lived anywhere nearby. From the names mentioned in his will, we may also deduce that he was living somewhere near the Lambs Creek area of present-day King George Co., and may well have been employed by Bronaugh, whose plantation was located near the Rappahannock River at about the point where State Highway 3 (if followed from Fredericksburg) bends inland from the River toward the peninsular ridge. His wife's name is unknown, as are the exact order and dates of birth of his children. This family was located about thirty miles directly south of present-day Washington, D.C. The Northern Neck of Virginia, the long peninsula of land stretching between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, experienced a boom in the tobacco trade during the mid-1680s that resulted in a large influx of farmhands, both white and slave, to work the plantations which had grown up along the fertile river plains. Land ownership was concentrated in the hands of a relatively small number of country gentlemen, who had built up their holdings cheaply through the "headlight" system, by financing the importation of labor into the colonies. For each settler whose passage was paid, the sponsor received fifty free acres of land, plus (usually) a contract binding the immigrant to seven years of indentured service. Settlers who managed to pay their own way to the British colonies, or those who paid off their servitude after seven years, worked as overseers, tradesmen, and fanners, buying small plots of land in less favorable areas, or leasing plots from the larger plantations. William Burges was probably one of the laborers who flooded into the Northem Neck region between 1685-1710. We know nothing of his origins. However, it is conceivable that he is the same person as the William Burges mentioned in The Complete Book of Emigrants, 1661-1699, by Peter Wilson Coldham (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1990, p. 682) as shipping goods (or himself and his possessions) from Bristol, England to Virginia between 4 Dec. 1697 and 2 Feb. 1697/98 O.S., on the same vessel (the Mountjoy) as goods shipped by William French and George Mason. The later Burgess connection with the French and Mason families is at least suggestive, although it must again be emphasized that there is no hard evidence to link our Burgess family with any other family or specific location in Europe.