Burge, Burges, Burgess, Burgh, Burgeis, Burgis, Burgeys 

Burges (by any of these names) were among the earliest arrivals in the American colonies.  (Spelling in the colonial days was purely phonetic according to the accent of the speaker or the whim of the writer as there was no standardized spelling at all; a man may have his name spelled three different ways in the same document.)

To do more than name them, however, to really understand them and their stories, we first must look back to their predessors in Britain.  But there were many Burges in Britain!  To connect the colonial Burges to the right British families takes a bit of detective work.  But if we are patient and thorough, we can bit by bit make these connections, with available detail that is abundant and interesting.

To use another metaphor, think of a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes there are pieces here and there that seem unrelated, but when we connect a number of pieces together and then add even just one additional piece, the whole pattern or picture may suddenly become obvious. The genealogical jigsaw puzzle includes many pieces (names, places, wills, ship manifests, court documents, and other and various things) and can look as scattered and confusing as does any other jigsaw when all the pieces are unassembled.  It’s our job to put the pieces together in some way that makes a clear picture.

The initial profusion of miscellaneous information need not get us all tangled and confused if we keep a good chronological chart at hand to sort things out.

Such a chart will be provided periodically in this text, adding new details to the chart in italics as they emerge.  For example, the first chart will include these particular beginning dates.

Burge Timeline

—in 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh’s colony on Roanoke Island, Virginia, failed; all died.

—in 1589 Defeat of the Spanish Armada, making possible additional sea trade for English shipping.

—in 1602 Anthony Gosnold’s tiny colony on Cape Cod lasted briefly before all returned to England.

—in 1620 the Mayflower colonists arrive in New England.

But when we notice that the Jamestown colony was founded in Virginia in 1607, we add that new fact to the chart, like this:

Burge Timeline

—in 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh’s failed colony on Roanoke Island, Virginia; all died.

—in 1589 Defeat of the Spanish Armada, opening up additional sea trade to English shipping

—in 1602 Anthony Gosnold’s tiny colony on Cape Cod lasts briefly before all return to England.

—in 1607 Jamestown Colony established in Virginia.

—in 1620 the Mayflower colonists arrive in New England

Now when we review the chart in chronological order, we notice that it was thirteen years long years after Jamestown was founded before the Mayflower arrived in Massachusetts, and, as we will later discover when we add other facts, that by the time the Mayflower landed, ships were regularly going up and down the North Atlantic coast from Jamestown the new New England coast (with Burges aboard!) long before the Puritans arrived on the Mayflower!

So, it’s a good idea to review these charts as new information accumulates, looking at how new information fits in, new information that will be shown in italics and/or underlined, and as we do so, some new question or connection or lead may leap out at us, suddenly clarifing things in a way that the narrative, rambling back and forth as it must, could not have made clear.  These charts have been very helpful to me.

But, back to Burges in England prior to colonization in the Americas.  Continue Here.