Tristam Burges

Burges was born in Rochester in the Province of Massachusetts Bay on February 26, 1770, to John and Abigail Burges. Burges's father was a cooper and farmer, and a Revolutionary War veteran. Burges attended the common schools. He studied medicine at a school in Wrentham. Upon the death of his father he abandoned the study of medicine. He was graduated from Rhode Island College (now Brown University), Providence, Rhode Island, valedictorian of the class of 1796. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1799 and commenced practice in Providence, Rhode Island. He married in 1801 to a daughter of Hon. Welcome Arnold, and had several children. ==Political career==

He served as member of the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1811 and a prominent member of the Federalist Party. Burges was elected to the US Congress in 1825 as a Federalist and served for ten years. He was known for his witty repartee with the anti-New England Virginian John Randolph of Roanoke. He died on his estate, Watchemoket Farm in 1853 in the town of Seekonk, Massachusetts (in the portion of which that would later be given from Massachusetts to Rhode Island and be incorporated as East Providence, Rhode Island, from a Supreme Court order settling a boundary dispute between the two states). He was interred in North Burial Ground, Providence, Rhode Island. ==Sources==