He is known for a diary called "Providence improved", which describes the state of Cheshire throughout the English Civil War.
[2] The vicar of Bunbury till the year 1629 was William Hinde, a celebrated puritan and biographer of John Bruen of Stapleford.
[b] In 1643, during the siege of Nantwich, Burghall says that his goods were seized and himself driven from his home by Colonel Marrow; he thereupon went to Haslington in Cheshire, "where he had a call", and tarried there from 1 May 1644 until 1646.
Before the civil war the entries only record what the author regarded as the special interventions of Providence in the neighbourhood of Bunbury.
In the year 1641 Burghall first notices political events, and afterwards gives a very detailed account of the military operations in Cheshire.