Son of John Fanning Burgwyn and his wife Sarah Pierpont (sometimes spelled Pierrepont) Hunt Burgwyn. He married Anna Matilda Waldburg (sometimes spelled Waldburgh) Barclay.

His middle name is spelled "Pollock" in numerous records.

Thomas Pollok Burgwyn was a member of the class of 1834 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but he did not graduate. He was a Freshman competitor at the Commencement of 1831. Source: History of the University of North Carolina from its Beginning to the Death of President Swain, 1789-1868 By Kemp P. Battle, Volume I. (1907)

About 1840, the children of John Fanning Burgwyn of New Bern (Henry King, Thomas Pollok, Emily, John Collinson, and Julia--wife of the Reverend Cameron F. MacRae) shared with their Devereaux kin in inheriting (but not without litigation) the extensive Roanoke River plantation lands of George Pollok (sometimes written "Pollock"). The shares allotted to the Burgwyns lay on the north side of the river in Northampton County, specifically in the great bend of the river known as Occoneechee Neck. Source: Biographical Information, John Burgwyn MacRae Papers #478, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Several sources indicate that Thomas Pollok Burgwyn's Roanoke River Plantation was named Alveston.

He married Matilda Barclay and died in 1868 without issue. Source: John Burgwin, Carolinian; John Jones, Virginian; Their Ancestors and Descendants by Walter Burgwyn Jones (1913).

T. Pollock Burgwyn of this State [North Carolina] married Ann[a] Matilda Waldburg Barclay, in March of 1840, in New York, according to the Raleigh Register newspaper of March 10, 1840. Source: Marriage and Death Notices from Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette, 1826 – 1845. Compiled by Carrie L. Broughton, State Librarian

On Friday morning, at St. Thomas' Church, by the Rev. L.P. Bayard, T. Pollock Burgwyn, of North Carolina was married to Anna Matilda Walburg, daughter of Anthony Barclay, Esq., of this city. Source: NYC Marriage & Death Notices 1836-1842. The New York Society Library.

A romantic tale is told of the first masked ball given in New York, which was held in 1840 in the Brevoort house. Among those who attended in fancy dress, domino and mask, was Miss Matilda Barclay, the beautiful and charming daughter of Anthony Barclay, the British Consul, who was later dismissed for raising recruits during the Crimean War. Another guest was a young South (sic) Carolinian named Burgwyne (sic), who, in spite of the opposition of her parents, had won Miss Barclay's heart. She went as Lalla Rookh and he as Feramorz. At four o'clock, without changing their costumes, they left the ball and were married before breakfast. This incident brought masked balls into such odium that it was many years before another was attempted in New York. Source: Fifth Avenue: Glances at the Vicissitudes and Romance of a World-Renowned Thoroughfare, Together with Many Rare Illustrations that Bring Back an Interesting Past (1915)

A Barclay family author states the following about Mrs. Burgwyn: “[M]y aunt Maud, was a celebrated beauty, queenlike, with exquisite complexion and auburn hair. As often happens to great beauties, her life was not happy. Marrying Thomas Burgwyn of Carolina, at the age of sixteen, she soon afterward, under her father's influence, separated from him, and devoted herself to her parents until the age of fifty, when she married Mr. Miller of Savannah, and died a year after.” Source: Our American Barclays by Cornelia Barclay Barclay. The Grafton Press, New York MCMVIII

Thomas Pollok Burgwyn and Anna Matilda Waldburg Barclay had a child, Francis M. Burgwyn, who was born on June 13, 1841 and died on June 16, 1841. Source: The Barclays of New York : Who They Are and Who They Are Not, — and Some Other Barclays, by R. Burnham Moffat (1904)

Chancery Court Papers from the Maryland State Archives referenced on the Internet show that Thomas Pollock Burgwyn divorced Anna Matilda Burgwyn on March 24, 1845.

In the 1860 Census for Northampton County, N.C., Thomas Pollok Burgwyn’s father, John F. Burgwyn, is listed as residing with him.

Before the Civil War Thomas Pollok Burgwyn was a man of large fortune, worth $ 150,000. However, by November of 1866 he was insolvent. See the North Carolina Supreme Court case of Grant v. Burgwyn, 84 N.C. 560 (1881).