Biography

Born in Ireland to a formerly wealthy family, raised by an uncle because of “relentless rancor” at home, Thomas Burke emigrated to Virginia by age 17. He became a doctor and felt he was good at it. But it didn’t pay well, so he shifted to the law instead, practicing in Norfolk.[a] He also wrote poetry! An early rebel, he published a poem in opposition to the 1765 Stamp Act. In 1770 Burke married Mary Freeman, and two years later he bought a plantation north of Hillsborough, which he named “Tyaquin” after his family home. The move came, he wrote, to stop him from overworking, and because he felt the climate was healthier. Eventually he held at least 12 people in slavery on the farm.[b]

After serving in the provincial congresses that created the state government, Burke was elected to the Continental Congress in 1776. He had lost his left eye to smallpox (despite what his picture shows), but told good stories, “sang a good song,”and was able to write poetry on demand.