Thomas Burgess

Thomas Burgess, Second Bishop of Clifton, 1851 to 1854

The future Bishop was born at Clayton-le-Woods, Lancashire, on 1 October 1791.

He was educated at Ampleforth where he became a professed monk of the Order of St Benedict on 13 October 1807. He was ordained priest in 1814 and elected Prior of Ampleforth in 1826. In 1830, with his Sub-Prior, Father Thomas Rooker, and the Procurator, Father Edward Metcalfe, he left Ampleforth and the Benedictine Order to join Bishop Peter Baines, the Vicar-Apostolic of the Western District and Father Thomas Brindle, the missioner at Bath, who were also members of the Benedictine Order, in the task of establishing the new school and seminary at Prior Park.

A difference of opinion with Bishop Baines caused Father Burgess to leave Prior Park in 1831. He served as missioner at Cannington and later at the new chapel in Brunswick Place at Bath. From 1835 until his appointment as Bishop of Clifton, he was missioner at Monmouth.

Bishop Burgess was consecrated at Southwark on 17 July 1851. On returning to his diocese, he set himself the task of putting the financial affairs of Prior Park in order. But this proved to be beyond his ability and, indeed, beyond the ability of anyone. In spite of his failing health, he made several ‘begging missions' as he called them to the dioceses in the north of the country to raise funds for the college. Shortly after returning from one such mission in October 1854, he became seriously ill and he died at the convent at Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol on 27 November, 1854.