Joshua Wright, yeoman, according to 77-145, on Feb. 5, 1795, for 24 pounds sold John Burgess of Plymouth forty acres, his first purchase in Plymouth. The land was southward of Gunners Exchange Pond, originally laid out to John Foster, as in the First Book of records, p. 224. When John Burgess bought the homestead and land in 1801 from Samuel Wright he now adjoined the land he bought from Joshua Wright six years earlier. There were neighborly ties between the families in the vicinity, romances and several marriages. John Burgess’s son Nathan in 1813 married Susanna, the daughter of Joshua Wright. The last transaction of the Wrights, Samuel and Sarah, was the sale of the homestead, 91-78, in 1801 to John Burgess for $600.00. The original deed was given to me by the kindness of Miss Mary Burgess. It contained the same acreage that came from the Churchills originally. It would have been exciting to find more evidence of the personal lives of these people we have been writing about. Such information would come from letters, diaries, written accounts by friends and contemporaries, descriptions by those who knew them and their activities at the time. However, it seems evident that these people were absorbed in their daily activities for the most part. They did not have the leisure or affluence nor was it the custom of the times to keep records of personal feelings. Wills, land transactions, vital statistics, court proceedings were necessary and recorded and are useful as far as they go. We have to depend mostly on such sources and infer what we reasonably can and use imagination wisely. It is not really a case of “the short and simple annals of the poor” for they did lead lives of significance, some dramatically so, but their innermost lives are hidden from us in the shades of the past. CHAPTER IX. THE FIRST BURGESSES We now come to the Burgess family and its occupancy of the house from 1801 to 1959. This family has an extensive and well recorded genealogy and history and I would like to tell you about them and point out some interesting factors. In a sense, such a family mirrors in part the settlement and growth of this part of Massachusetts.[13] The name Burgess is of ancient origin, signifying an inhabitant of a borough, a freeman, a citizen. It has been spelled Burge, Burges, in early Plymouth documents. The first was said to be Stephen de Burg who came to England with William the Conqueror in 1066.