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Bishop Thomas Burgess (1756-1837), the founder of St David’s College, Lampeter, bequeathed it his personal library, comprising around 9 000 volumes.
Burgess came from Odiham, Hampshire, where his father was a grocer. He was educated at Winchester College and then Corpus Christi College, Oxford. College life suited him; he became a tutor and then a fellow of his college. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1784. He next became examining and domestic chaplain to Shute Barrington, (bishop of Salisbury from 1782 to 1791 and bishop of Durham from 1791 to 1826).
Burgess’ life was transformed in June 1803. The prime minister Henry Addington, (his contemporary at both school and university), appointed him bishop of St Davids. His new diocese was huge, covering almost half of Wales; it was also impoverished financially. Most of its clergy were poorly paid, and with low educational standards. Burgess was determined that the training for candidates to the priesthood should be improved.
Believing that most future clergy should attend a residential college within the diocese, he decided to establish a seminary at Llanddewi Brefi in Ceredigion. Draft plans and regulations were drawn up as early as 1809. But even by 1820, building had still not started, although £13 000 had been collected for the project. That spring, Burgess met John Scandrett Harford, the Lord of the Manor of Lampeter, at a dinner party held by the bishop of Gloucester. Harford offered Burgess the three-acre Castle Field site, as a potential location for the college. It was then decided to begin building as soon as possible. The foundation stone for St David’s College, Lampeter, was laid on 12 August 1822; Burgess described it as the happiest day of his life. The college opened on 1 March 1827.
Burgess came from Odiham, Hampshire, where his father was a grocer. He was educated at Winchester College and then Corpus Christi College, Oxford. College life suited him; he became a tutor and then a fellow of his college. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1784. He next became examining and domestic chaplain to Shute Barrington, (bishop of Salisbury from 1782 to 1791 and bishop of Durham from 1791 to 1826).
Burgess’ life was transformed in June 1803. The prime minister Henry Addington, (his contemporary at both school and university), appointed him bishop of St Davids. His new diocese was huge, covering almost half of Wales; it was also impoverished financially. Most of its clergy were poorly paid, and with low educational standards. Burgess was determined that the training for candidates to the priesthood should be improved.
Believing that most future clergy should attend a residential college within the diocese, he decided to establish a seminary at Llanddewi Brefi in Ceredigion. Draft plans and regulations were drawn up as early as 1809. But even by 1820, building had still not started, although £13 000 had been collected for the project. That spring, Burgess met John Scandrett Harford, the Lord of the Manor of Lampeter, at a dinner party held by the bishop of Gloucester. Harford offered Burgess the three-acre Castle Field site, as a potential location for the college. It was then decided to begin building as soon as possible. The foundation stone for St David’s College, Lampeter, was laid on 12 August 1822; Burgess described it as the happiest day of his life. The college opened on 1 March 1827.
Burgess had often said he would be content to remain at St Davids for the rest of his life. However, in 1825, aged sixty-eight, he became bishop of Salisbury, (thereby moving to a smaller and wealthier diocese). He died in Southampton on 19 February 1837; he is buried in the south choir transept of Salisbury cathedral.
Burgess was a fine scholar, and his collection is that of a scholarly bishop, with volumes collected over his lifetime. His first interest, as a student and then fellow at Oxford, was in classical studies. After his ordination, he widened his enthusiasms to include theology and the Hebrew language. His is very much a working library, with books purchased for use rather than for show. Many books retain a temporary publisher’s paper binding.
Burgess came from Odiham, Hampshire, where his father was a grocer. He was educated at Winchester College and then Corpus Christi College, Oxford. College life suited him; he became a tutor and then a fellow of his college. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1784. He next became examining and domestic chaplain to Shute Barrington, (bishop of Salisbury from 1782 to 1791 and bishop of Durham from 1791 to 1826).
Burgess’ life was transformed in June 1803. The prime minister Henry Addington, (his contemporary at both school and university), appointed him bishop of St Davids. His new diocese was huge, covering almost half of Wales; it was also impoverished financially. Most of its clergy were poorly paid, and with low educational standards. Burgess was determined that the training for candidates to the priesthood should be improved.
Believing that most future clergy should attend a residential college within the diocese, he decided to establish a seminary at Llanddewi Brefi in Ceredigion. Draft plans and regulations were drawn up as early as 1809. But even by 1820, building had still not started, although £13 000 had been collected for the project. That spring, Burgess met John Scandrett Harford, the Lord of the Manor of Lampeter, at a dinner party held by the bishop of Gloucester. Harford offered Burgess the three-acre Castle Field site, as a potential location for the college. It was then decided to begin building as soon as possible. The foundation stone for St David’s College, Lampeter, was laid on 12 August 1822; Burgess described it as the happiest day of his life. The college opened on 1 March 1827.
Burgess had often said he would be content to remain at St Davids for the rest of his life. However, in 1825, aged sixty-eight, he became bishop of Salisbury, (thereby moving to a smaller and wealthier diocese). He died in Southampton on 19 February 1837; he is buried in the south choir transept of Salisbury cathedral.
Burgess was a fine scholar, and his collection is that of a scholarly bishop, with volumes collected over his lifetime. His first interest, as a student and then fellow at Oxford, was in classical studies. After his ordination, he widened his enthusiasms to include theology and the Hebrew language. His is very much a working library, with books purchased for use rather than for show. Many books retain a temporary publisher’s paper binding.
Burgess had a particular admiration for John Milton; his collection included Poems of Mr John Milton, both English and Latin (1645); Paradise regain’d (1671); The doctrine & discipline of divorce (1644); and A treatise of civil power in ecclesiastical causes (1659). However, Burgess, also owned a copy of De doctrina Christiana, and of its translation into English, A treatise on Christian doctrine (both first published 1825). Robert Lemon, the Deputy Keeper of His Majesty’s State Papers, had found the manuscript in the State Paper Office. George IV’s librarian, Charles Sumner, then prepared it for publication.
The work was seen as heterodox, challenging the doctrine of the Trinity. Burgess was convinced it could not be by Milton, writing a series of essays and arguing his case in addresses to the Royal Society of Literature in 1826, 1827 and 1828. His book Milton not the author of the lately discovered Arian work De Doctrina Christiana (1829) gathers all his work on the subject.
Like Burgess, William Buckland, dean of Westminster and president of the Geological Society, attended Winchester College and then Corpus Christi College Oxford. Buckland gave Burgess a copy of his book Reliquiæ diluvianæ; or, observations on the organic remains contained in caves, fissures, and diluvial gravel, and on other geological phenomena, attesting the action of a universal deluge, (published 1823). In it,
Buckland wrote of Kirkdale cave, about twenty-five miles north-north-east of York. Abundant animal bones had been found buried in the floor; although hyena remains were the most common, there were also elephants, rhinos, horses, oxen, deer, foxes, and rats. Buckland thought that the hyenas must have dragged the prey species into the cave, to feast on them at leisure. He concluded that the fauna must have lived on the spot, rather than the bones having been swept into Britain from the tropics in Noah’s flood. Yet Buckland still accepted the biblical flood, writing of the ‘last great convulsion that has affected our planet.’
Burgess owned a five-volume edition of the works of Isaac Newton, published between 1789 and 1785 and edited by Samuel Horsley, one of his predecessors as bishop of St Davids. He possessed a small number of popular volumes of natural history. These included Gilbert White’s A Naturalist’s Calendar (1795); Burgess’ native town of Odiham is only fourteen miles north of White’s Selborne. Burgess also owned three of the four volumes of Thomas Martyn’s Flora Rustica (1792-94) with its attractive hand-coloured etched plates.