Rinaldo Burleigh was born in that part of Ashford which is now Eastford, Connecticut, on February 20, 1774. His grandfather, John Burley, came to America with Governor Belcher, of Massachusetts, in 1730, married Miriam Fuller, of Thompson, and settled in Union, Connecticut. their first son, John Burley, Junior, the father of Rinaldo, settled in Eastford, and died in 1784, leaving a large family in very straitened circumstances. His wife was Persis, the second daughter of David and Elizabeth Harwood, of Sutton, Massachusetts; she next married John Blanchard, of Union.
On the death of his father, Rinaldo was apprenticed by the selectmen to a farmer for the term of his minority. When fourteen years old one arm was crushed nearly to the shoulder in a cider-mill and amputated. This rendered him less efficient for manual labor, and as one result the desire was awakened for an education, by which he might maintain himself. At the age of seventeen he obtained release from his indentures, and with only the scantiest supply of clothing set out to make his way in the world. After one winter at a common district-school, he was able to teach the following winter; and by slow advances, aided by generous friends, especially by his preceptor, John Adams (Yale 1795), of Plainfield, he was enabled to enter College during the Junior year. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith at the end of Junior year. His poverty and deserts and graduation were so great that the Corporation took the unusual step of remitting his back dues for tuition, etc.
He chose teaching as his profession, and in the Academies of Woodstock (1814-16) and Colchester, and for a much longer time, beginning in 1803, in that of Plainfield, won a distinguished reputation. He counted among his pupils the children of every State in the Union and of some foreign lands. He was considered a mature scholar, a strict disciplinarian, thorough, painstaking, and conscientious in instruction.
His studious habits and close application induced a disease of the eyes, which terminated in total blindness in 1847. Some years before this, as dimness of vision increased, he relinquished his teaching, and retired to a farm just north of the village of Plainfield, where he had taught longest. From 1817 until his death, for over Forty-five years, he was a Deacon in the Plainfield Congregational Church, and discharged the functions of his office acceptably, until prevented by blindness and other infirmities.
He was a cordial friend of the anti-slavery and Temperance movements, and of other social reforms.
He married Lydia, younger daughter of John and Elizabeth (Bond) Bradford, of Canterbury, who died many years before him.
His death occurred in Plainfield, on February 10, 1863, ten days before he had completed his 89th year.
He had 9 children, of whom two died in infancy, two in the flush of early manhood. four sons, all highly gifted, and a daughter survived him. One son was widely known as an abolitionist orator and editor; and a second as a poet and journalist; and the others as temperance lecturers and writers.
AUTHORITIES
Bond, Hist. of Watertown, Mass., Union, 292, 294-95, Larned, His. 77, Lucian Burliegh, MS. Letter, of Windham County, ii, 306-07, 325, July, 1863. Hammond, Hist. of 427-28, 454, 509-09
Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History pp 563-565
On the death of his father, Rinaldo was apprenticed by the selectmen to a farmer for the term of his minority. When fourteen years old one arm was crushed nearly to the shoulder in a cider-mill and amputated. This rendered him less efficient for manual labor, and as one result the desire was awakened for an education, by which he might maintain himself. At the age of seventeen he obtained release from his indentures, and with only the scantiest supply of clothing set out to make his way in the world. After one winter at a common district-school, he was able to teach the following winter; and by slow advances, aided by generous friends, especially by his preceptor, John Adams (Yale 1795), of Plainfield, he was enabled to enter College during the Junior year. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith at the end of Junior year. His poverty and deserts and graduation were so great that the Corporation took the unusual step of remitting his back dues for tuition, etc.
He chose teaching as his profession, and in the Academies of Woodstock (1814-16) and Colchester, and for a much longer time, beginning in 1803, in that of Plainfield, won a distinguished reputation. He counted among his pupils the children of every State in the Union and of some foreign lands. He was considered a mature scholar, a strict disciplinarian, thorough, painstaking, and conscientious in instruction.
His studious habits and close application induced a disease of the eyes, which terminated in total blindness in 1847. Some years before this, as dimness of vision increased, he relinquished his teaching, and retired to a farm just north of the village of Plainfield, where he had taught longest. From 1817 until his death, for over Forty-five years, he was a Deacon in the Plainfield Congregational Church, and discharged the functions of his office acceptably, until prevented by blindness and other infirmities.
He was a cordial friend of the anti-slavery and Temperance movements, and of other social reforms.
He married Lydia, younger daughter of John and Elizabeth (Bond) Bradford, of Canterbury, who died many years before him.
His death occurred in Plainfield, on February 10, 1863, ten days before he had completed his 89th year.
He had 9 children, of whom two died in infancy, two in the flush of early manhood. four sons, all highly gifted, and a daughter survived him. One son was widely known as an abolitionist orator and editor; and a second as a poet and journalist; and the others as temperance lecturers and writers.
AUTHORITIES
Bond, Hist. of Watertown, Mass., Union, 292, 294-95, Larned, His. 77, Lucian Burliegh, MS. Letter, of Windham County, ii, 306-07, 325, July, 1863. Hammond, Hist. of 427-28, 454, 509-09
Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History pp 563-565
Rinaldo Burleigh was born in that part of Ashford which is now Eastford, Connecticut, on February 20, 1774. His grandfather, John Burley, came to America with Governor Belcher, of Massachusetts, in 1730, married Miriam Fuller, of Thompson, and settled in Union, Connecticut. their first son, John Burley, Junior, the father of Rinaldo, settled in Eastford, and died in 1784, leaving a large family in very straitened circumstances. His wife was Persis, the second daughter of David and Elizabeth Harwood, of Sutton, Massachusetts; she next married John Blanchard, of Union.
On the death of his father, Rinaldo was apprenticed by the selectmen to a farmer for the term of his minority. When fourteen years old one arm was crushed nearly to the shoulder in a cider-mill and amputated. This rendered him less efficient for manual labor, and as one result the desire was awakened for an education, by which he might maintain himself. At the age of seventeen he obtained release from his indentures, and with only the scantiest supply of clothing set out to make his way in the world. After one winter at a common district-school, he was able to teach the following winter; and by slow advances, aided by generous friends, especially by his preceptor, John Adams (Yale 1795), of Plainfield, he was enabled to enter College during the Junior year. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith at the end of Junior year. His poverty and deserts and graduation were so great that the Corporation took the unusual step of remitting his back dues for tuition, etc.
He chose teaching as his profession, and in the Academies of Woodstock (1814-16) and Colchester, and for a much longer time, beginning in 1803, in that of Plainfield, won a distinguished reputation. He counted among his pupils the children of every State in the Union and of some foreign lands. He was considered a mature scholar, a strict disciplinarian, thorough, painstaking, and conscientious in instruction.
His studious habits and close application induced a disease of the eyes, which terminated in total blindness in 1847. Some years before this, as dimness of vision increased, he relinquished his teaching, and retired to a farm just north of the village of Plainfield, where he had taught longest. From 1817 until his death, for over Forty-five years, he was a Deacon in the Plainfield Congregational Church, and discharged the functions of his office acceptably, until prevented by blindness and other infirmities.
He was a cordial friend of the anti-slavery and Temperance movements, and of other social reforms.
He married Lydia, younger daughter of John and Elizabeth (Bond) Bradford, of Canterbury, who died many years before him.
His death occurred in Plainfield, on February 10, 1863, ten days before he had completed his 89th year.
He had 9 children, of whom two died in infancy, two in the flush of early manhood. four sons, all highly gifted, and a daughter survived him. One son was widely known as an abolitionist orator and editor; and a second as a poet and journalist; and the others as temperance lecturers and writers.
AUTHORITIES
Bond, Hist. of Watertown, Mass., Union, 292, 294-95, Larned, His. 77, Lucian Burliegh, MS. Letter, of Windham County, ii, 306-07, 325, July, 1863. Hammond, Hist. of 427-28, 454, 509-09
Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History pp 563-565
On the death of his father, Rinaldo was apprenticed by the selectmen to a farmer for the term of his minority. When fourteen years old one arm was crushed nearly to the shoulder in a cider-mill and amputated. This rendered him less efficient for manual labor, and as one result the desire was awakened for an education, by which he might maintain himself. At the age of seventeen he obtained release from his indentures, and with only the scantiest supply of clothing set out to make his way in the world. After one winter at a common district-school, he was able to teach the following winter; and by slow advances, aided by generous friends, especially by his preceptor, John Adams (Yale 1795), of Plainfield, he was enabled to enter College during the Junior year. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith at the end of Junior year. His poverty and deserts and graduation were so great that the Corporation took the unusual step of remitting his back dues for tuition, etc.
He chose teaching as his profession, and in the Academies of Woodstock (1814-16) and Colchester, and for a much longer time, beginning in 1803, in that of Plainfield, won a distinguished reputation. He counted among his pupils the children of every State in the Union and of some foreign lands. He was considered a mature scholar, a strict disciplinarian, thorough, painstaking, and conscientious in instruction.
His studious habits and close application induced a disease of the eyes, which terminated in total blindness in 1847. Some years before this, as dimness of vision increased, he relinquished his teaching, and retired to a farm just north of the village of Plainfield, where he had taught longest. From 1817 until his death, for over Forty-five years, he was a Deacon in the Plainfield Congregational Church, and discharged the functions of his office acceptably, until prevented by blindness and other infirmities.
He was a cordial friend of the anti-slavery and Temperance movements, and of other social reforms.
He married Lydia, younger daughter of John and Elizabeth (Bond) Bradford, of Canterbury, who died many years before him.
His death occurred in Plainfield, on February 10, 1863, ten days before he had completed his 89th year.
He had 9 children, of whom two died in infancy, two in the flush of early manhood. four sons, all highly gifted, and a daughter survived him. One son was widely known as an abolitionist orator and editor; and a second as a poet and journalist; and the others as temperance lecturers and writers.
AUTHORITIES
Bond, Hist. of Watertown, Mass., Union, 292, 294-95, Larned, His. 77, Lucian Burliegh, MS. Letter, of Windham County, ii, 306-07, 325, July, 1863. Hammond, Hist. of 427-28, 454, 509-09
Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History pp 563-565
Bio by: Jan Freeman
Inscription
aged 89 yr.
Gravesite Details
son of John Burley & Persis Harwood
Family Members
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
