Burges, Col. Elizeus
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- Burges, Col. Elizeus
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(d. 1736), diplomat, possibly the Elizeus Burges appt. gov. in New England 1715; res. Venice 1719 - 22 and 1727 - 36; d. Venice.
1719 - 22 Venice (17 Oct. 1719 - Feb. 1722)
1727 - 36 Venice (14 Dec. 1728 - d. 14 Nov. 1736)
A genial cultivated man, with a love of the polite arts including music,1 Burges had two periods as British resident in Venice. His first appointment was suspiciously regarded by his predecessor, Alexander Cunningham, who thought there was some collusion between Burges and his friend Robert Brown, the wealthy English merchant at Venice. Although Burges received his instructions on 20 May 1719 and arrived in Venice on 17 October, Cunningham did not leave until 5 November 1719.2 Burges returned to England between his two spells of duty,3 and he appears to have travelled little in Italy; he was in Padua on 28 July 1720 with Neil Brown4 and is recorded in Turin on journeys between England and Venice in 1722 and 1734.5
Burges's diplomatic correspondence6 was much concerned with Jacobites, and latterly with the wars of the Polish Succession, of which he provided a melancholy account. 'This poor country [Italy], which is in no way concerned with the war', he wrote on 16 December 1735, 'has not failed to feel the bad effects of it. This Campaign, having several armies in it many months together, which lived, as they say, with great licence, taking many things without paying & giving what they pleased for the rest. The people in general complain of 'em all alike, but ye Spaniards have given greatest Offence'; the French were 'quarter'd in the Duchies of Milan, Piacenza, Padua, Guastala & Modena. The King of Sardinia's troops are all in his own Dominions in the state of Milan. The Germans are continually marching in small Bodies through the Divisions of the Republick; but they have no settled quarter in it. Their whole strength is in the Mantuan and Ferrarese, in the last of which places they live very well at the Pope's expence.'
But Burges was also able to comment on the growth of the grand tour. On 20 January 1730 he reported 'about thirty of His Majesty's Subjects here', but when he had first been in Venice 'we seldom saw above eight or ten in a winter, much is ye Humour of Traveling increased since that time: and as most of ye Young Gentlemen that come abroad have money enough, they spend it freely every where which makes 'em well received, and may be more for ye honour of our Country perhaps, than it is for her interest'. On 1 June 1731 he commented that the Ascension festivities had attracted more visitors 'than ever it was known to do and among others about 20 of His Majesty's subjects'.
Burges knew Owen Swiney and was the friend of Joseph Smith,1 the celebrated English patrons of Venetian painters, and he may himself have owned a group of works by the young Canaletto, in one of which (priv. coll., Milan) he was said to appear.7 Like Joseph Smith, Burges had a country villa on the Venetian mainland,1 and he appears to have been a friendly presence in Venice, though not without weaknesses. In 1721 the Duchess of Richmond had warned her son Lord March (later 2nd Duke of Richmond) not to 'keepe Mr Burges company too much, for I hear he is a violent drinker which is that has killed all our English youths',8 and later in 1734 Richard Pococke described Burges as 'a most facetious merry old Gentleman but a little prophane ... much troubled with Gout.'9 Between June and October 1733 Martin Folkes spent some of his time in Venice gossiping and drinking in the Piazza S.Marco with Burges.(10) He suffered increasingly from gout, and was granted a leave of absence in the summer of 1734 when he made a painful journey back to England. He had returned to Venice and resumed his duties by 28 October 1735.(11) On 31 December 1735 he wrote to the Earl of Essex 'I don't remember in what part of my letter I told you that I had taken to drinking again. I hope your Lordship has mistaken me; for it is so far from being the case, that I don't drink what is allowed me by my Physicians, nor even so much as they prescribe me. But Mr Villette [secretary at Turin] will not believe it ... As to the Ladies, I am persuaded they will do me no harm, as I use them. I have one in the House with me, who is an agreeable companion to me more than a Mistress. I commit no excesses to hurt my Nerves: but she often prevents my going abroad, and keeps me out of company, where I might be tempted to break my resolution and play the Fool, as I used to do. Your Lordship saies, with great reason, that women are bad for the nerves; but wine hurts them as much & gives the Gout too. It is well I have got the better of the most mischievous of those two vices, the other will leave me of itself.'12 But Burges died soon after; having suffered 'violent apoplectick Convulsions, occasioned by the Gout in his Stomack',13 he died in Venice on 14 November 1736 and was buried in the Protestant cemetery. A caricature of Burges - 'Mister Collonel', a tall thin man with a craggy face - attributed to Anton Maria Zanetti the Elder is in the Fondazione Cini.
1. F. Vivian, Consul Smith Collection, 14. 2. SP 99/62, ff.279, 305, 355, 394 (Cunningham, 9 Jun., 28 Jul., 20 Oct., 23 Nov. 1719). 3. Horn, 1:84. 4. Brown 1665 (28 Jul. 1720). 5. SP 99/62 (Burges, Turin, 21 Mar. 1722). SP 99/63, f.274 (Burges, 20 Aug. 1734). 6. SP 99/62 - 3. 7. See Constable-Links, no.269. 8. Earl of March, A Duke and his Friends, 1:53. 9. Pococke letters MSS, f.15 (13 Jun. 1734). 10. Folkes jnl.MSS. 11. SP 99/63 (Burges, 4 Jun., 20 Aug. 1734). 12. Add.27734, f.216. 13. SP 99/63, f.334 (Brown, 16 Nov. 1736).