Richard Estey Burpee (1810 - 1853)

Born 1810 in York County, New Brunswick

Descendants

Died 26 Feb 1853 at about age 43 in Jacksonville, Florida, United States

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Biography

Richard Burpee is Notable.

Richard Burpee was a prominent Baptist Minister, promoter of missionary work and missionary from New Brunswick.

Early Life and Lineage

Richard was born circa 1810 in York County, New Brunswick. He was a son of Thomas Burpee and Esther (Gallop) Burpee. His family decended from pre-loyalist immigrants who founded the community of Maugerville in 1763.

He moved to the provincial capital where he became a general merchant. There, he joined the Brunswick Street Baptist Church where he was baptized on November 21, 1829. He quickly became a leading member of the congregation.

Entry Into Ministry

He was greatly influenced by the ministry of Rev. Frederick W. Miles, a strong proponent of missionary work who was in the process at the time of founding the first Baptist Seminary in New Brunswick. He was licenced to preach by 1836 or 1837. On September 7, 1837 he was ordained as the first minister of St. George's Baptist Church in Fredericton.

In 1838, he Baptists of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia developed a plan to send a missionary overseas. Richard Burpee was selected for that ministry in 1839, when he was 29 years old. He then sought to educate himself in preparation for the missionary field, enrolling at the newly established Queen's College (later Acadia Univerisity) In Wolfville. (Notes on Acadia University) He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1844.

In a letter published in the Christian Messenger, Mr. Burpee expressed his deep and consuming interest in the work to be performed: I feel - said the writer - as if I wanted to say to every young brother called to preach the gospel, is it not your duty to go to some heathen land? I must confess that there are moments when I feel not a little dejected. It is when I look around for some brother to accompany me, and cannot find one willing to offer himself"

Because the local Baptist conference did not have a mission station, Burpee and his wife were sponsored by the American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions in 1845 with an agreement for the local association to pay half the expenses. They sailed to Burma via Boston on April 20, 1845 and set up a mission at Mergui among the Karen population. Unfortunately, the missionary work he was able to accomplish there was limited due to a decline in his health shortly after his arrival from presumed Tuberculosis. He died three years later in Florida, where he had gone for the climate.

Marriage and Children

He married a Laleah Johstone, daughter of Lewis Johnstone, M.D, of Wolfville.^[1][2]

They had the following known children:

• Lewis J. Burpee 1846-1891 Born in Burma. Clerk in the Privy Council. Died in Ottawa at the age of 45.

Legacy

Richard Burpee was a pioneer among Baptist Ministries and "Burpee" became a Christian name given to generations of Baptist males as a result.

The desire to support Burpee and others in their missionary endeavours was a primary driver behind the union of the Baptist Associations in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Sources

1. ↑ Death Announcement, Lewis J. Burpee, Saint John Globe, July 21, 1891. Transcribed in Johnson, Daniel Vital Statistics From New Brunswick Newspapers, Vol 81 No 586
2. ↑ Death Announcement, Laleah Burpee, 'The Daily Telegraph', June 26, 1893. Transcribed in Johnson, Daniel Vital Statistics From New Brunswick Newspapers, Vol 88 No 2438

• Barry M. Moody, “BURPEE, RICHARD E,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed May 22, 2023, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/burpee_richard_e_8E.html.
• [https://www.google.ca/books/edition/History_of_the_Baptists_of_the_Maritime/djTMIP2AC7MC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=rev.+r.e.+burpee&pg=PA294&printsec=frontcover History of the Baptists of the Maritime Provinces, pp 294-297.
• Daniel, Orville E., Moving with the times: The story of a century of mission/ 1874-1974. Toronto: Canadian Baptist Overseas Mission Board (1973) page 17.