Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Burnham, Richard (1711-1752)
BURNHAM, RICHARD (1711–1752), biographer, was born at Guildford, Surrey, in 1711, of pious parents. He collected the dying sayings of more than a hundred pious persons, with some account of their lives and last hours. He died in 1752, and in the following year was published ‘Pious Memorials; or the Power of Religion upon the Mind in Sickness and at Death,’ by the Rev. Richard Burnham, with a recommendatory preface by the Rev. James Hervey, author of the ‘Meditations.’ Besides the preface, Mr. Hervey added to the ‘Memorials’ an account of Richard Burnham himself, by which it appears he preached for a few years to a small congregation, and ended his life on 4 June 1752. When he was dying, seeing his wife ‘in a flood of tears,’ he said, ‘My dear, don't let us part in a shower.’ The ‘Pious Memorials’ were reprinted at Paisley in 1788 with additions, and again enlarged in 1789. It was reprinted with a continuation by the Rev. George Burder in 1820, forming a large octavo volume, and a stereotyped reprint is still on sale.
[Hervey's Account of Richard Burnham, in the Memorials, 1753.]