The Realm of Generations

[Simfan34]

The Realm of Generations – The Burgess Family of New York

For a dynasty that has seen over two centuries of political, economic, and social prominence, the criticism levied against the Burgess family has proven remarkably constant. The most popular and enduring, perhaps, is the image of the Burgesses as anachronistic members of the landed gentry, sitting in feudal splendour at Blackwood surrounded by millions of acres of farmland filled with scores of tenants. While the Burgesses were never proper feudalists—a privilege belonging only to the Dutch patroons of the Hudson Valley---for the most part, this portrayal is remarkably close to the truth.

The Burgesses’ landholdings have stayed constant at just above 400,000 acres since the late 19th century, but continue to exert significant influence in the ten counties where they received title to nearly 3 million acres at the end of the 18th century. They have owned and managed virtually every sort of company and enterprise man has conceived—flour mills, canals, railroads, still mills, car companies, arms manufacturing, shipping, newspapers, resorts, even an airline—and held almost every office possible in the United States—a Vice President, two Governors, three Senators, six Congressmen (and one Congresswoman), Secretaries of State, War, Treasury, and Agriculture—with only the Presidency eluding them.

While most members of the Burgess Family today chose to keep a low profile (only two members are active in politics as of 2012), the vast number heirs of and comparatively low profile conceal the sheer size of their interests—estimated at over $23.5 billion in 2016, which is held by some 25 households in varying amounts, mainly through shares of the several private holding companies under the control of the family as well as direct inheritance. Despite this, the senior line of the family—the direct patrilineal descendants of Rupert Burgess—holds the lion’s share of both influence and wealth within the family, a fact that has led to no shortage of strife and familial intrigue. Yet the Burgesses endure, helped by the fact that their trusts are arranged to prevent shareholding outside of the family. Successive generations descendants inherit smaller and smaller shares until they are compelled to cash out and resell to a more senior member, keeping the wealth cycling within the family, rather than not diluted amongst the twelve thousand descendants of Rupert Burgess. Combined with an adamant refusal to sell off money-losing enterprises, this has helped preserve wealth for centuries.

The result is a powerful few branches do much of the moving and shaking within the family's businesses. Nearly all of the shareholders, even to this day, would be by definition members of the landed gentry, as they could live off the dividends based off of their agricultural interests alone. Practically, this is what most of them do: supervising the lands, investing the income from the 2,100 or so tenant farmers that rent land from them, developing subdivisions, managing the dozens of commercial and industrial interests that the family still controls: hotels, importers, transportation companies. The majority of Western New York’s grain passes through—and is thus purchased by—a Burgess Farm Company (BFC) elevator or mill. The famed Bread & Circus chain of upscale, organic groceries is a subsidiary of the Burgess Trust Group (BTG), as is the famed Burgess House Hotel facing New York’s Central Park. They have lent their name to a university, a county, and several ships of the US Navy.

For all their fame, the Burgesses are not known for flaunting their wealth. Perhaps it is because the nature of it is so un-American, being essentially acquired by poorly-taxed inheritance alone off of the backs of tenant farmers in aristocratic glory. Whereas the gentry of Britain saw their influence and lands dwindle in the 20th century, and the great families of America faded into time, the Burgesses have managed to endure, and, today, are wealthier and stronger than ever.

[Simfan34]

Burgess joins Republicans angry over lack of Sandy aid

Congresswoman Helen Burgess (R-NY)

WASHINGTON - Another prominent Republican joined the choir of politicians disparaging their own party due to Congressional inaction over passing a relief package for Hurricane Sandy victims. Republican Congresswoman Helen Burgess, of New York's 27th congressional district, criticized speaker John Boehner and House leadership on an appearance on NBC Nightly News yesterday. "The intransigence over this bill is just sickening," she said. "You have people holding this up over-what- peanuts, a roof for the Smithsonian, some aid to fisheries to Alaska. It's ridiculous. We need help now. Actually, we needed help two months ago." Burgess emphasized that Upstate New York suffered significant damage from the storm as well, saying, "we often focus the camera on the Jersey Shore or Long Island, when Upstate New York was affected as well. Thousands of trees were downed, power was knocked out, and we need to recover." But she also noted that all affected regions needed aid. "I do realize there are people, parts of the region that have suffered more than we have, and that's why we need to make passing this bill a top priority."

"And I have just not seen that from the Speaker. He outright refused to meet with us.  There's a total lack of leadership from him and his office." When pressed on whether Boehner should step down, she said that "I would find it very hard to vote for him for Speaker again unless he shows some leadership here."

Burgess joins New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and fellow New York Congressman Peter King in her scathing criticism of fellow House Republicans on delayed aid.

Burgess, 31, was elected in a special election in 2011 to succeed Chris Lee after he resigned following a sex scandal; she was reelected in a landslide in November. She is currently the youngest woman in the House of Representatives.

Read more on Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

[Simfan34]

Burgess in 2008 at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China.

William Rupert Burgess III (born September 13, 1928) is a American lawyer, politician and diplomat. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected to the House of Representatives in New York's 37th congressional district in 1962, and was re-elected three times (in 1964, 1968, and 1970). In 1971 he was appointed Under-Secretary of State, in 1973 he was appointed Ambassador to the United Nations by Richard Nixon, then in 1975 Secretary of Commerce.

In 1981 he was appointed as President of the World Bank Group for a five-year term by President Reagan. In 1986 he became Secretary of the Treasury, and in 1989 Burgess was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to serve as United States Secretary of State. He retired in 1992, and declined to seek the presidency in 1996 and 2000.

The patriarch of the highly influential Burgess family, he was the sixth member of the family to serve in a presidential cabinet, the third Senator, and the fifth in the House of Representatives. He was estimated to be worth $2.1 billion in 2011, and exerts significant control over the family's commerical interests. He is the father of United States Ambassador to Japan William R. Burgess IV and congressman Hamilton Burgess, and the grandfather of current Congresswoman Helen Burgess.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

This looks pretty interesting, Simfan.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

This is good. And Helen is hot.

[Simfan34]

Dawn of a Dynasty - The Burgess Purchase



Rupert Burgess in 1785.

Rupert Burgess (born 1751), was a British businessman who had immigrated to the newly born United States in 1783, shortly after the end of the War of Independence. He had made a small fortune in building and operating grist mills in Massachusetts, and rapidly. However, Burgess desired to control the grain supply as well, perhaps a foreshadowing of the tendencies towards vertical integration exhibited by the family firms in the 20th century; however it would have been impossible for Burgess to come into ownership of the state’s farms.

In 1790, however, an opportunity presented itself. Two years before, the speculators Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham had purchased the title to over six million acres of Western New York from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Legal disputes and a failure to find willing settlers meant that Phelps and Gorham were forced to default in 1790 and forfeit the title to land west of the Genesee River to Massachusetts. The state then resold those lands to the financier Robert Morris, who in turn in 1792 sold the lands to the Dutch Holland Land Company.

East of the Genesee, Phelps and Gorham had managed to sell only 500,000 out of 2,750,000 acres, and there too they had been forced to default on their payments. Thus Burgess entered the picture. Unlike the other buyers, who intended to resell the land at a profit to settlers, Burgess anticipated retaining ownership over his purchase and forming a vast agricultural demesne, growing, milling, and selling every foodstuff conceivable. “I anticipate that this Venture shall be the greatest Agricultural scheme ever undertook by a man in this Country…the estates of the Lords of England put together shall not be as productive as this One shall be.”

Burgess began development of the land that same year, initially clearing some 50,000 acres for primarily wheat and cattle production in 1791. One major impediment was finding labour to farm this vast tract; settlers were not especially allured by the prospect of tenancy, nor was Burgess even particularly willing to divide up his holdings helter-skelter amongst tenants with goals for the land that differed from his and with designs on purchasing it outright. The labour shortage proved stifling, only 17,000 acres were cleared in 1792 and fewer than 5,000 in 1793.

A 1794 map of the Burgess Estate, divided into survey townships.

The scheme would have proved insolvent by no later than 1795, if not for the petition of a corps of destitute veterans to farm the land for a share of the produce. The solution was metayage, a system little different from the sharecropping of the latter half of the 18th century, where farmers would cultivate the land for a share of the produce. The system allowed the tenants a steady source of income variable upon their efforts; it gave Burgess full control over the allocation and production of the crops. Additionally, it was anticipated that the tenants would sell their share of the crops to the processing facilities that Burgess would produce—grist mills, tanneries, abbatoirs—thus capturing the profits derived from those goods.

By 1800 250,000 acres were under cultivation, and an extra 100,000 used for grazing. The Burgess Estate, as it had become known as, was the nation’s largest producer of leather and wool, and produced more wheat, corn, and oats than any other single farm in the country. Rupert Burgess had become one of the wealthiest men in the United States—and his family’s fortune was just beginning. 

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Your personal fantasies are a bit weird, but this is damn well written!

[Simfan34]

A Line of Their Own – The Burgesses and the Erie Railroad

The opening of the Erie Canal was initially seen as a great opportunity for the Burgess estate, guaranteeing easier passage of goods down from Upstate to the Hudson, New York, and beyond. Indeed, the high cost of transportation had limited the further growth of Burgess’s farms, with only the already large quantities of produce keeping the enterprise afloat. The aged Rupert Burgess made the journey to Albany in 1815 (the furthest he had traveled in three years) to petition governor DeWitt Clinton to build a canal. He was not alone in pushing for a canal; The Holland Land Company saw the canal as a way to increase values, while a one-time buyer of Burgess’s flour, Jesse Hawley, had written extensively on the subject whilst in debtor’s prison.

In 1817, their efforts paid off and the State Assembly authorized the then-astronomical sum of $7 million for the construction of the canal. Rupert Burgess would die in 1822, before the Canal was completed, but his son, Lesley Burgess, was present at the 1825 opening of the canal. Production on the estate seemed set to explode, which it did: wheat production quadrupled from 500,000 bushels of wheat per annum in 1820 to two million in 1835, 800,000 bushels of corn to three  million, and 150,000 bushels of oats to 400,000, all on half a million acres of land.

The Erie Canal, in Rochester, which was intended to save the Burgess estate, would instead imperil it

But all was not well with this story. Lesley Burgess was less disinclined than his father to rent his lands outright to his tenants and leave them be in exchange for rent, in order to facilitate the rapid expansion of farming of the estate. This was particularly true for those tenants who had been farming the land for over three decades by this point. The control of their produce, in turn, was lost. A major fault in Rupert Burgess’s plan thus emerged. Burgess’s tenants found themselves more willing to sell their grain at competitive prices to mills in Rochester than at an undervalued price at a Burgess mill. Where they had once had no other option than to give in to the artificially valued price, the “Flour City”, as Rochester had become known, provided an alternative. While the Burgesses saw moderate success with their own mills in Rochester, it was not enough. Profits for the Burgesses fell once more.

The problem was exacerbated by the increasing wealth of the tenants, many of whom sought to buy the lands they rented. This increasing tenant prosperity, combined with anti-rent sentiment in the Hudson Valley, and eventual state pressure, would spark the precipitous sell-off of five-sixths of the Burgess estate. While the magnitude of this chain of events was not realized in the 1830s, already hundreds of thousands of acres were being sold to their renters to fund the construction of new mills to keep up with market prices. An alternative to Rochester had to be found, or otherwise the Burgess Estate would find itself staring down the hole of insolvency.

DeWitt Clinton, when building the Erie Canal, had promised the peoples of the Southern Tier their own transportation route. In 1832, the construction of the New York & Erie Railroad (NY&E) from Dunkirk on Lake Erie to Piermont on the Hudson was authorized by the state. Ground was broken on the NY&E in 1835, but a fire in New York caused most of its backers to lose their fortunes. It was at this point that Lesley Burgess stepped in. Burgess decided to invest the vast sum of $2 million dollars—a considerable portion of the cost of the railway’s construction, and an even more considerable portion of his wealth—into the railroad, and additionally gifted tens of thousands of acres to the railroad for tracks, stations, and other purposes. Construction resumed in 1838. After several more false starts, challenges, and bankruptcy, the railway opened with great fanfare in 1851.

For the Burgesses, the railway served a very practical purpose—direct grain and produce away from Rochester. The location of the Erie Railroad depot in Hornell was convenient for the construction of several mills, and competition was prevented by the fact that the surrounding lands were either part of the Burgess estate outright or owned by the railroad, which, being amenable to the Burgesses (as, of course, a significant percentage of their stock was owned by them), was highly unlikely to allow rival mills to be built on their land. The relative proximity of the Hornell depot to the Burgess estate and its touted speed provided a successful alternative to the Burgess tenants, and shipments to Rochester declined rapidly, and the Burgesses again controlled the lion’s share of their tenants’ grain.

But for the railroad itself, the good times were not to last long. It ran into difficulties not soon after opening and was lent money by the Burgesses. It was also lent some two million dollars by a financier, Daniel Drew. It could not pay, therefore in 1859 it entered receivership and was taken over by Drew. During the next decade he used the Erie railroad simply as a means to manipulate the price of its stocks on the Stock Exchange.  In this way he fleeced a large number of investors tricked into speculation out of millions of dollars. Leslie Burgess was more than willing to let this occur provided the trains still ran, but his son and heir, T. Chauncey, was less willing to see the railway run into the ground; additionally, he presupposed, he could run it profitably himself. He secretly began to buy stock, and by 1866 he had obtained enough to get control.  Drew and his directors were ejected, Burgess superseding them with his own.

T. Chauncey Burgess, who would later become Governor of New York, was astute a politician as he was a businessman, and began to assemble a far larger network than he had acquired. With the cooperation of his cousin, Bartholomew Livingston, who was head of the board of directors, and Hugh J. Jewett, a former Congressman who became the company’s president, the Erie expanded westward, to Chicago. The idiosyncratic broad-gauge (designed to keep other trains off of the Erie’s trackage) was replaced with standard gauge.

The Erie Limited, while unstylish in comparison to its rivals, served the railroad well

Jewett was succeeded as president in 1899 by Fredrick D. Underwood, who continued the modernization of the Erie. His projects included double-tracking the remainder of the main line and building several freight bypasses with lower grades, making the line east of Meadville, Pennsylvania largely a water-level route. In 1907, the Erie electrified passenger operations on its branch between Rochester and Mt. Morris, New York. In 1918 the Erie purchased the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway, whose stock it had been buying since 1898.

The Erie generally compared poorly to the other two major Chicago-New York railways, the New York Central and the Pennsylvania. It was primarily a freight railroad as opposed to a passenger one; with its circuitous route and leisurely timekeeping, the Erie Railroad held perhaps the least advantageous position in the heated competition for passenger traffic between New York and Chicago. The Erie Limited paled in comparison to the Broadway Limited or the 20th Century Limited, and even the Burgesses were often said to be seen traveling upon those rather than their own trains. . But that was not its primary concern, that being, again, freight, and connecting small towns to the world, which was a task the Erie served well for decades.

The Erie, however, was not immune to the changes afoot in the second half of the 20th century. In 1960, to cut costs, the Erie merged with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, forming the Erie Lackawanna Railroad. But that did not save it. Helpless in the face of subsidized airlines, automobiles, and coaches, the E&L consistently made losses. Overregulated, it found itself both unable to neither raise fares nor significantly cut its expenses. Hurricane Agnes in 1972 cost the E&L $2 million in damage, and it was left with no choice but to declare bankruptcy. Four years later, it would forfeit itself to the federally-backed Conrail system. Thus ended the Erie Railroad.

The Newport development of the 1980s and 90s helped the Burgesses recoup the Erie's late-life financial losses

But its saga was not yet complete. The Erie still owned several physical assets to be disposed of. Most of these were acquired by the Burgesses, and indeed a large portion of them had once belonged to them. The majority of these were developed by the Burgess Land Company; perhaps the most prominent of these is Newport in Jersey City, a 10,000 unit development built from the former Erie rail yard that drove the city’s renewal in the 1990s.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Simfan, this is really well-written and thorough. I'll be eagerly following this.

[Simfan34]

United States Presidential Election, 1960

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (D-MA) / Lyndon B. Johnson (D-TX) Richard Milhous Nixon (R-CA) / William Wordsworth Burgess (R-NY) Harry Flood Byrd (D-VA) / James Strom Thurmond (D-SC)

49.13% 50.11% —

33,821,798 34,491,956 —

258 EV 265 EV 16 EV

[Simfan34]

In an interesting turn of events, I'll get to meet "William Burgess" next week.

[Simfan34]

Earl of Stratfield, in the County of Berkshire, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. Uniquely, the Earls have been resident in the United States for most of its existence, where they have been the heads of the prominent Burgess family, because (or in spite) of this, the title is today little used, and indeed little-known.

The Earldom was created in 1784 for George Burgess, 1st Baron Stratfield, a Scottish civil and military administrator, former Governor of Gibraltar and Commander-in-Chief, Scotland. The Earldom had been secured largely through the efforts of his son, Rupert Burgess, who was a notable Whig and supporter of William Pitt the Younger, on whose recommendation the Earldom had been granted. He had already been created Baron Stratfield, of Stratfield Mortimer in the County of Berkshire, in 1778, in the Peerage of Great Britain, and was made Viscount Burgess at the same time as he was given the earldom. The viscountcy is used as the courtesy title by the heir apparent to the earldom.

George Burgess, 1st Earl of Stratfield

Anne Burgess (nee Somerville), Countess of Stratfield

The Earls of Stratfield, however, have not been resident in Britain since the death of the First Earl in 1786, two years after the creation of the title, with the exception of the fifth Earl, Henry Burgess, who lived most of his later life in Britain. (His second son, Nicholas Burgess, accompanied him, and was later granted the title of Viscount Streatley and remained in Britain). The second Earl, Rupert Burgess, 2nd Earl of Stratfield immigrated to the United States in 1783 and came to acquire a significant portion of northern New York state. Thus the Burgesses were launched as one of the wealthiest families in the United States, in which they remained, and the Burgess family remains influential in political and business affairs in the 21st century.

At the turn of the century, William R. Burgess Sr., the notional sixth Earl, attempted to surrender the Earldom. Burgess, who had been estranged from his father and his brother, Viscount Streatley, wanted little to with the Earldom or any aspect of his English holdings. Enraged by his father's support for his brother's pursuit of a peerage of his own, his support for the construction of Lardon Chase as an alternative residence to overshadow Basildon Park, and his granting of a large portion of the family wealth to the Viscount, Burgess sought to sever all ties with England. The effort was largely unsuccessful; the House of Lords declared the surrender illegal, efforts to sell or demolish Basildon Park were frustrated by the family trustees who sought to retain it. Burgess never stepped foot in Britain during his tenure, going out of his way to do so. It was left for the seventh Earl to re-establish ties with Britain and the family's holdings there.

As a result, the Earldom is not usually emphasised amongst the family, and although the successive Earls, as American citizens, have been sure to keep enrolled with the College of Heralds, little mention is made of their possession in their professional lives, and they do not usually style themselves as such. Family members, likewise, do not use the courtesy titles or honorifics; this has been the case since the early 19th century. However the Earls have been present at every coronation during the Earldom's existence (with the exception of the three that occurred under the sixth Earl), and have maintained their seat, at considerable expense, since that time, furthermore, the Earl's coronet and parliamentary and coronation regalia remain in their possession. From time to time the Earls would speak in the House of Lords, until that right's abolition in 1999. The last Earl to sit in the Lords was the seventh earl, who spoke on the occasion of the Bicentennial of the United States of America on July 4, 1976.

The Earls have thus been significant political figures in the United States since their naturalisation. T. Chauncey Burgess, the fourth Earl, served as Governor of New York from 1857 to 1863 . His grandson, William Burgess Sr. the sixth Earl, served as Governor of New York from 1915 to 1922 and Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge from 1925 to 1929. William Burgess Jr., the seventh Earl, was a New York State Senator from 1930 to 1947,  a United States Senator from that state from 1947 to 1965, and Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1969 to 1974. William Burgess III, the eighth and present Earl, was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1963 to 1971, Under-Secretary of State from Economic Affairs from 1971 to 1973, the Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations from 1973 to 1975, Secretary of Commerce 1975 to 1977, Senator from New York from 1980 to 1989, and ultimately Secretary of State from 1989 to 1992. His son and heir, William Burgess IV, Viscount Burgess, served as United States Ambassador to Japan from 2000 to 2005.

Basildon- from left to right: the Dining Room, the main facade, the Octagonal Drawing Room

The family seat is Basildon Park, in Berkshire, but the family has had its primary residency at Blackwood House in New York since 1832.

[Simfan34]

The Earls have been the following:

George Burgess, 1st Earl of Stratfield KT PC

Born in Stratfield Mortimer in 1734. Married Hon. Anne Whichnour Somerville, daughter of James Somerville, 12th Lord Somerville and Anne Bayntun, in December 1748. He gained the rank of Captain in the service of the General Humphrey Bland's Dragoons, fought with distinction at Culloden, and succeeded the General as Governor of Gibraltar. He held the office of Comptroller General of the Customs. Had been created Baron Stratfield in 1778.  He died on 16 March 1786 at Bath, Somerset, England.

Rupert Burgess, 2nd Earl of Stratfield KCMG

Born in Gibraltar in 1752, studied at Westminster School and University College, Oxford. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1777 entitled to practise as a Barrister  He held the office of Commissioner of Bankruptcy in 1777. Member of Parliament for Belston from 1780 to 1784 under the Whig whip, settled intermittently in the newly born United States in 1784, established large land holdings for the family in Northern New York State consisting of some 2.75 million acres. He married, firstly, Hon. Elizabeth Noel, daughter of Edward Noel, 1st Viscount Wentworth of Wellesborough and Judith Lamb, on 19 June 1777. He married, secondly, Anne Montolieu, daughter of Lt.-Col. Lewis Charles Montolieu, Baron de St. Hypolite, on 16 December 1780, having nine children. He died on 13 October 1824.

Lesley Burgess, 3rd Earl of Stratfield

Born in Bath on 12 May 1776, studied at Winchester College and Christ Church College, Oxford. Was primarily occupied with business and trading in New York, managing the town interests of the estate. Served as Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory from 1812 to 1815. Married Eleanor Eden, eldest daughter of Lord Auckland and rumoured fiance of Pitt the Younger, on 12 July 1788.  Built the family's country residence, the first Blackwood House, as a gift for his wife. Organised the construction of the New York & Erie Railroad to connect the family holdings to the city, however, due to financial pressures and anti-rent sentiment, was compelled to sell-off of five-sixths of the Burgess estate, reducing it to some 450,000 acres. Sponsored the establishment of the Genesee College in Lima, later Burgess University. Died on 11 January 1843, in London.

Theophilus Chauncey Burgess, 4th Earl of Stratfield

Born in New York on 18 November 1809 and thus the first Burgess family head to be born in the United States. Studied at Trinity School and law at Columbia College, was admitted to the New York Bar in 1833. Practiced law in New York, and was a successful broker and banker, leaving most matters of the estate to his son, Henry. Was elected to the State Assembly as a Whig and later Republican between 1841 and 1853, holding a number of important commissions and appointive offices. Was elected Governor in 1856 and served between 1857 and 1863, being re-elected three times. He was appointed major general of volunteers in September 1861 and commanded the Department of New York until he was discharged in 1864 serving simultaneously as governor and head of the military department. After the war, oversaw the refurbishment of the Erie Railroad. Donated generously to the Genesee College, so that it was renamed Burgess College, and then University in his honour. Married, firstly, Grace Fletcher Webster, daughter of the celebrated Senator Daniel Webster and his wife of the same name, on 12 June 1830, was wid. on 28 April 1848. Married, secondly, Mary Alida Astor, daughter of William Backhouse Astor, on 27 July 1851. Died on 11 December 1873, in New York.

[Simfan34]

Had to split the post due to it exceeding, after gradual additions over the years, the 11,000-character limit. This can also be taken as an indication that this project remains active, if barely so. Who knows, I might write a proper update soon if my interest keeps up.


Henry Rupert Burgess, 1st Marquess of Brentwood, 5th Earl of Stratfield KG GCB GCVO PC

Born in New York on 13 February 1834, studied at Trinity School and Yale College. Married Katherine Elizabeth Hamilton, daughter of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn, on 26 October 1858, wid September 1874. Was engaged in the upkeep and modernisation of the Burgess Estate and significantly expanded Blackwood House in a number of building campaigns, commissioning the Scottish architect David Cousin to design a master scheme for the House in 1860 in a neo-Gothic style that would completely envelop the existing Federal-style residence. Lived at Blackwood until 1878, when he removed to Berkshire and took up residence at Basildon. Was the beneficiary of a writ of acceleration in 1880 and sat on the Conservative benches as the Baron Stratfield. He served as Conservative Chief Whip in the Lords from 1885 to 1895, Lord Chamberlain of the Household from 1895 to 1900, President of the Board of Agriculture from 1900 to 1903, Lord President of the Council from 1903 to 1905. He was additionally Lord Lieutenant of Essex from 1890 to 1905. He was later accompanied by his eldest son, Nicholas, who shared his English inclination; he was made Marquess of Brentwood, with subsidiary titles of Earl of Bridgewater, Viscount Streatley, and Lord Burgess, in 1894, with special remainder to (Lord) Nicholas. Died on 22 July 1906, at Basildon nr. Basildon Village, Berkshire.

William Rupert Burgess (Sr)

Born at Blackwood on 12 August 1866, and educated at Trinity School and Yale College. Strongly devout and conservative to the point of aseticism, William Burgess Sr. was deeply Anglophobic above all else, a characteristic often attributed by biographers to his father's preference for that country and perceived childhood neglect. He thoroughly neglected Blackwood, before selling and the family's English holdings to his brother, Viscount Stratley; instead residing at a "remarkably severe" residence on New York's Upper East Side. He feuded viciously with his elder brother, who went with his father to England, eventually excluding him from any involvement in the family's American holdings, henceforth taking the leadership of the "American branch"—and the bulk of the family holdings—himself. He served as Governor of New York from 1915 to 1922. He was selected as Calvin Coolidge's running mate in 1924 and thus served as Vice President of the United States from 1925 to 1929. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 1928, his low-church Old Right conservatism failing to generate sufficient amongst the convention delegates. Afterwards his politics took on an increasingly radical and isolationist bent, becoming at times sympathetic towards authoritarian movements and tinged with anti-Semitic rhetoric. Burgess ardently opposed US entry into both World Wars and was a strong backer of the America First Committee, giving $250,000 to the organisation and occupying senior leadership positions. Was an early backer of publisher Frank Gannett (whose parents were Burgess tenant farmers and who attended the Genesee College on scholarship), and later supported Gannett's political activities, whose conservatism largely coincided with Burgess's own views. The Burgess family has remained a major shareholder in the Gannett company up through recent years. Contributed generously to the expansion of the Burgess College in Geneva, NY, (formerly the Genesee College in Geneva) which was renamed Burgess University shortly after his death. He died in New York, on 7 March 1947.

William Rupert Burgess (Jr) KCMG

Born in New York on 8 October 1899, educated at Lawrenceville and Yale University. Served in the United States Army during the First World War, and the worked as a banker under J. P. Morgan, Jr. and eventually acquired a sizeable fortune of his own in the 1920s. Left shortly before the Crash of 1929 to become an official in the Treasury Department for a brief while before being elected to the New York State Senate. Was a Reserve officer during the Second World War, but saw no action. He was elected Majority Leader of the New York State Senate in 1944 and would remain in that position until 1947 when he was elected to the Senate, where he would remain until 1965. Afterwards served as Ambassador to the Court of Saint James from 1969 to 1974. He rekindled ties with the English branch of the family and with leaders there, eventually becoming honorary patron of the British Council and a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. He married firstly Edith Catherine Gould, daughter of George Jay Gould, the financier, on 12 March 1922, and was widowed in 1937. He married secondly... He died on April 6, 1977, at Blackwood.

William Rupert Burgess III GCMG

Born in Rochester on September 13, 1928, and educated at Lawrenceville and Yale University. Graduated from Yale Law School in 1950 and later received his LL.M. from Columbia Law School. During the Korean War served in the United States Army as a Judge Advocate from 1950 to 1953, reaching the rank of major, later retiring as a colonel from the Army Reserve. He was elected to the House of Representatives in New York's 37th congressional district in 1962, and was re-elected thrice (in 1964, 1968 and 1970). In December 1970 he was appointed Under Secretary of State by President Richard Nixon, succeeding Elliot Richardson, close friend and occasional professional rival, continuing in 1972 as the 1st Deputy Secretary of State. In 1973 he was appointed Ambassador to the United Nations, succeeding future President George H.W. Bush. In 1975 he was appointed Secretary of Commerce by President Gerald R. Ford. In 1977 appointed President of Chemical Bank, and CEO in 1980. Stepped aside in 1981 to become President of the World Bank and was succeeded by Walter V. Shipley. In 1981 nominated by President Ronald Reagan to serve as President of the World Bank, serving for five years before becoming Secretary of the Treasury in 1986. In 1989 nominated by President George H.W. Bush to serve as United States Secretary of State, serving until the administration's end in 1993. Declined to seek the presidency in 1996 and 2000. Married on May 28, 1948 Alice Wadsworth, his third cousin, daughter of James Jeremiah Wadsworth, later United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and was widowed in 1998. Has been a trustee of a number of charitable organizations, including the Chinese Institute, the Asia Society, the American–Iranian Council, the Atlantic Council, the British Memorial Garden, and many others.

William Rupert Burgess IV

Born in New York on May 12, 1952, and educated at Lawrenceville and Yale University. Ambassador to Australia 2001-2005, Ambassador to Japan 2005-2009.