Ebenezer Burgess

Burgess was born on April 1, 1790, in Wareham, Massachusetts.[1][2] He was graduated from Brown University in 1809, and at the Andover Theological Seminary in 1814.[1][2] In 1835, he received a doctorate in divinity from Middlebury College.[2]

On May 22, 1823, Burgess was married to Abigail Bromfield Phillips, the daughter of Lt. Governor William Phillips Jr.[3] He and his family lived in the Broad Oak estate.[lower-alpha 1] Burgess tore down the Richards home[6] and built a new mansion on the lot in 1839.[7][8] Burgess operated it as an "extensive cattle farm."[5]

Besides three who died in childhood, they had four children: Miriam Mason, Ebenezer Prince, Edward Phillips, and Martha Crowell.[3] Burgess became the possessor of considerable wealth and was known for his benevolence.[3][9] He was an ancestor of John K. Burgess and, through Abigail, the uncle of Samuel H. Walley.

He was elected a resident member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society in 1862.[3] He died December 5, 1870, in Dedham and is buried in the Old Village Cemetery.[10][1][2] His gravestone is notable for the level of detail it includes about his life.[10]

He accompanied Rev. Samuel J. Mills to Africa, as an agent of the American Colonization Society, to explore the western coast of that continent, and joined the colony of Liberia.[1][2] They sailed from Philadelphia on November 1, 1817, and Burgess arrived home again October 22, 1818.[1] On their homeward voyage, Mills was taken sick and died, and his associate performed for him the last offices and committed his remains to the ocean.[1] He maintained his association with the society throughout his ministry.[9]

He taught in the high school at Providence, Rhode Island one year; was tutor in Brown University from 1811 to 1813, and professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in the University of Vermont from 1811 to 1817.[1][2]

He was the founder and president of the Dedham Institution for Savings.[2]

Following a schism at the First Church and Parish in Dedham, and the accompanying lawsuit, Baker v. Fales, Burgess was ordained pastor of the Allin Congregational Church on March 14, 1821.[1][2]

In the run up to the Civil War, "he did not support the anti-slavery movement" and segregated the pews in the church by race.[9] When a visiting southern clergyman was traveling through the area, Burgess would often invite him to preach.[11] Congregants were sometimes offended by what the visiting preacher had to say.[11] However, when President Joseph Jenkins Roberts of Liberia would visit the United States, he would frequently preach from the Allin pulpit.[9]

William Jenks, a pastor from Green Street in Boston, would spend the summers in Dedham.[11] Burgess would invite him to stand on his left during services and Jenks would lead the "long prayer."[11]

He was a firm believer in the evangelical system of faith.[3] His preaching was distinguished for breadth and comprehensiveness, rather than for pointedness and closeness of application.[3]

Burgess was "strict in his denominationalism" and did not associate with the other ministers in the town.[9] Unlike many of the others, he did not serve on the Dedham School Committee.[9] If a congregant died, but owned a pew in another church, Burgess would not share in the funeral duties.[9]

When John Wade was sentenced to death for arson at the Phoenix Hotel, Burgess intervened on his behalf and helped get it commuted to life imprisonment.[12]

Burgess resigned active pastoral duties on March 13, 1861.[1]

In 1840, he published The Dedham Pulpit, a volume of five hundred pages and, in 1860, the Burgess Genealogy, a 200-page tome chronicling the descendants of Thomas Burgess, of Plymouth Colony.[1][10][13][2]

The Burgess Schoolhouse, also known as District Number 11 and the Westfield School District, was located on Westfield Street near Schoolmaster Lane.[14][15] The simple one story building had red shutters and plank seats with no backs.[16] A new schoolhouse, named in honor of Burgess, was built around 1840 and sold 1899.[16][15]

• Clarke, Wm. Horatio (1903). Mid-Century Memories of Dedham. Dedham Historical Society.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Slafter, Carlos (1905). A Record of Education: The Schools and Teachers of Dedham, Massachusetts 1644-1904. Dedham Transcript Press. 1642-3.
• Dedham Historical Society (August 11, 2001). Images of America: Dedham. Arcadia. ISBN 9780738509440.
• Hanson, Robert Brand (1976). Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635-1890. Dedham Historical Society.
• Morse, Abner (1861). A Genealogical Register of the Descendants of Several Ancient Puritans, V. 3: The Richards Family. H.W. Dutton. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
• Richards, Arthur Wescate (1942). Genealogy: the James Francis Richards branch of a Richards family of New England; that of Edward Richards, Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635-1684. Sarasota, Florida: Star Printing Company.`