He was a founder of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and the father of Aaron Burr (1756–1836), the third vice president of the United States.

He was of English ancestry (his grandfather Jehu Burr had been born in Lavenham, Suffolk, England, in 1625, settled in the Connecticut Colony as a young man, and died there in 1692).

He was personally acquainted with Jonathan Edwards and his wife Sarah, daughter of James Pierpont, who is credited with founding Yale.

[1] After a few years, Burr rose to prominence in the Presbyterian circles of upper New Jersey and the New York City area.

[2][page needed][3] The rift affected the faculty and student body at Yale that was at the time an incubator for both Presbyterian and Congregational clergy.

[4] In September 1756, when the French and Indian War was underway, Burr wrote a sermon in which he sought to defend the "Priviledges [sic] of unadulterated Christianity; British Liberty and Property, in a delightful and fruitful Country"[5] foretelling future fusion of secular and religious rhetoric in the Revolutionary era.