The Burdens and Bristol

Rarely in a lifetime do three people achieve and contribute to society in so many ways as did the Burdens in Bristol. Here are short biographical notes and some of their major achievements. From his early youth Mr. Burden apparently determined to devote his life to the welfare of others, and thus decided against the wishes of his family, to enter the Church. Like many others who had taken "the mould of man's fortune in his own hands", Mr. Burden had to enter his chosen profession without much of that material assistance his family could have so easily afforded. College life at Cambridge was thus largely denied him and he had to content himself with the simpler theological foundation then known as Ayerst Hostel. After his ordination at Carlisle in 1888, Mr. Burden spent some time in curacies in the East End of London, where he first came in contact with those unfortunates whom it was his constant ambition to help and cheer on their otherwise drab walk through life. Those early contacts undoubtedly moulded much of Mr. Burden's later activities. Then came missionary work in Canada amongst the Ojibway Indians and the rough lumbermen of Canada's backwoods, in isolation and terrible loneliness. Here Mr. Burden experienced many vicissitudes, and "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" did not altogether pass him by, for he suffered severe domestic losses. In his book "Life in Algoma", published in 1984, and descriptive of his life and early struggles in the lone lands of the outposts of the British Empire. During those years in Canada he built four substantial churches and two parsonages, all of which he left entirely free from debt, besides doing his missionary work which entailed numerous journeys sometimes involving days of travel by land and water. Constant fatigue, recurrent illness from the climate with its extremes of heat and cold impaired Mr. Burden's health so that he was compelled to leave Canada. Two children had been born and had died in their infancy in Canada. He and his wife began their preparations to give up their charge and returned to England at the close of 1891. For the next two years he was Curate of Holy Trinity, Shoreditch and in 1893 entered St. Catherine's College, but being married, lived at Swavesey. Meanwhile he accepted a curacy at Milton, Cambridgeshire and acted occasionally as Assistant Chaplain at St. Catherines.