upon to act as an envoy between the hostile forces, which he did, passing back and forth under a fiag- of-truce, endeavoring to further negotiations for peace. In Paris, and among the German besiegers, he was looked upon with the greatest curiosity, and, although his efforts at peace-making were un- successful, he secured the lasting respect and con- fidence of both sides. In January, 1875, after his return to this country, he was elected U. S. senator from Rhode Island, and in 1880 was re-elected. He took a leading position in the senate, was chair- man of the committee on foreign affairs, and sus- tained his life-long character as a fair-minded and patriotic citizen. His death, which was very sud- den, from neuralgia of the heart, occurred at his home in Bristol, R. I. The funeral ceremonies as- sumed an almost national character, for his valua- ble services as a soldier and as a statesman had se- cured general recognition, and in his own state he was the most conspicuous man of his time. Burn- side was a tall and handsome man of soldierly bearing, with charming manners, which won for him troops of friends and admirers. He outlived his wife, and died childless. See " Life and Public Services of Ambrose E. Burnside," by Benjamin Perley Poore (Providence, 1882).
BURNSIDE, John, planter, b. in Ireland about
1800; d. at White Sulphur Springs. Va., 29 .June,
1881. At the time of his death he was the largest
sugar-planter in the United States. He began life
in poverty, and his first business engagement was
in a country store in Virginia ; but so marked was
his ability that he became partner in a large New
Orleans house. About 1852 he began to invest
money in sugar lands, and eventually owned ten
of the finest plantations in the sugar district of
Louisiana and the finest residence in New Orleans.
In spite of the loss of more than 2,000 slaves, he
was among the first to try sugar-planting with free
labor on a large scale, and his success had much in-
fluence in re-establishing the, broken industries and
credit of the south.
BURNYEAT, John, preacher, b. in Crabtreebeek, Cumberland, in 1631; d. in Dublin, 11 July, 1690. He travelled in England and Ireland, and in 1672 came with George Fox to America. His
" Truth Exalted in the Writings of that Eminent and Faithful Servant, J. Burnyeat" (1691), is a collection of his expository essays, and his " Memorials " describe the condition of Maryland and the other colonies through which he passed from
New England to North Carolina. He was a zeal-
ous advocate of the creed and polity of the society
of Friends, and suffered much persecution because
of his steadfast ministry.
BURPEE, Isaac, Canadian statesman, b. in
Sheffield, N. B., 28 Nov., 1825; d. in New York
city, 1 March, 1885. He was educated at the county
grammar-school, and in 1848 went to St. John,
shortly afterward entering into partnership with
his brother in the hardware trade. He was first
elected to Parliament in 1872 for St. John, N. B.,
re-elected in 1874, and sworn of the Privy council
and appointed Minister of customs in the Macken-
zie administration (Liberal), 7 Nov., 1874. He was
re-elected in 1878, and holds many offices of honor
and public trust.
BURR, Aaron, clergyman, b. in Fairfield, Conn.,
4 Jan., 1716; d. 24 Sept., 1757. He belonged to a
Puritan family that for three generations had given
to church and state men of eminence. He was
graduated at Yale in his nineteenth year, having
gained one of the three Berkely scholarships, which
entitled him to maintenance at the college for two
years after graduating. While pursuing his
post-graduate
studies he was converted, and at once
turned his attention to theology. At the age of
twenty-two he became pastor of the Presbyterian
church in Newark, N. J., where he soon acquired a
commanding reputation as a pulpit orator. Here
he also established a school for boys, which proved
highly successful. He prepared for his pupils a Latin
grammar known as the “Newark Grammar” (1752),
which was long in use at Princeton. In later years
he published a small work on the “Supreme Deity
of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (new ed., 1791), with an
occasional sermon. In 1748, at the age of thirty-two,
he became president of the College of New
Jersey, but without interrupting his pastoral
service. In the summer of 1752 he married Esther,
daughter of Jonathan Edwards, of Stockbridge,
Mass. In the autumn of 1756 he resigned his
charge at Newark and removed to Princeton, where
he died from overwork. He left two children,
Sarah, b. 3 May, 1754, and Aaron. As scholar,
preacher, author, and educator, President Burr was
one of the foremost men of his time. To his more
solid qualities were added a certain grace and
distinguished style of manner, which re-appeared in
his son. Though nominally the second president
of Princeton, he was practically the first, since the
former, Jonathan Dickinson, only served for a few
months. He was in a true sense its founder, and
the college may be said to be his monument. Six
of its presidents are buried in Princeton by his
side. —
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His son, Aaron, statesman, b. in Newark, N. J., 6 Feb., 1756; d. on Staten Island, N. Y., 14 Sept., 1836. His mother was Esther Edwards, the flower of the remarkable family to which she belonged, celebrated for her beauty as well as for her superior intellect and devout piety. In the truest sense, Aaron Burr was well born. Jonathan Edwards, his grandfather, illustrious as divine and metaphysician, had been elected to succeed his son-in-law as president of Princeton, but died of a fever, resulting from inoculation for small-pox, before he had fairly entered upon his work, Mrs. Burr, his daughter, died of a similar disease sixteen days later. The infant Aaron and his sister Sarah, left doubly orphaned, were placed in charge of their uncle, the Rev. Timothy Edwards, of Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), N. J. A handsome fortune having been bequeathed to them by their father, their education was conducted in a liberal manner; a private tutor was provided, Tapping Reeve, who afterward married his pupil, Sarah Burr, and became judge of the supreme court of Connecticut. A bright, mischievous boy, and difficult to control, Aaron was still sufficiently studious to be prepared to enter Princeton at the age of eleven, though he was not admitted on account of his extreme youth. He was very small, but strikingly handsome, with fine black eyes and the engaging ways that became a fascination in his maturer life. In 1769 he was allowed as a favor to enter the sophomore class, though only in his thirteenth year. He was
