[1] Burgess was placed under Richard Busby at Westminster School in 1654, and entered commoner of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1660.

He was headmaster of the school founded by Lord Orrery at Charleville, co. Cork, and had pupils from the Irish nobility and gentry.

He came to London in his fortieth year (1685), and ministered to a large congregation at a hired meeting-place in Brydges Street, Covent Garden.

On 1 March 1710 the Henry Sacheverell mob gutted Burgess's meeting-house, and made a bonfire of its pulpit and other fittings.

He was a conspicuous example of pith and vivacity at a time when a dry dignity was beginning to be exacted of preachers as a virtue.

Tom Brown, who takes his Indian to Russell Court, deals chiefly with the congregation, but his hint of Burgess's "pop-gun way of delivery" is in harmony with his style of composition.

[1] Of Burgess's publications Bogue and Bennett give, after Henry, an imperfect list of 32 without dates, beginning with Soliloquies, which he printed in Ireland, and ending with a Latin defence of nonconformity, Appellatio ad Fratres exteros.

Among his works are: His son, Daniel Burgess (died 1747), was secretary to Caroline of Ansbach, Princess of Wales, and in 1723 obtained a regium donum or government grant of 500 half-yearly for dissenting ministers.