Burgher

Burgher may refer to:

People with the surname

See also

Burgher people

Burgher people, also known simply as Burghers, are a Eurasian ethnic group in Sri Lanka descended from Portuguese, Dutch, British and other Europeans who settled in the island. Portuguese and Dutch had held the maritime provinces of the island for centuries before the advent of the British Empire. With the establishment of Ceylon as a crown colony, most of those who retained close ties with the Netherlands departed. However, a significant community of Burghers remained and largely adopted the English language. During the nineteenth century they occupied a highly important place in Sri Lankan social and economic life.

Portuguese settlers on Ceylon were essentially traders, but wished to form colonies, and Lisbon did nothing to discourage European settlement—even to the extent of advocating intermarriage with the Sinhalese. It was not the policy of the Dutch East India Company to endorse similar unions, although a number of unofficial liaisons between its employees and local women occurred in the late eighteenth century.

Burgher (Church history)

In the Scottish church of the 18th and 19th centuries, a burgher was a member of that party amongst the seceders which asserted the lawfulness of the burgess oath.

The burgess oath was that oath a town burgess was required to swear on taking office. The secession church in Scotland split in 1747 into the Burghers and the Anti-Burghers over the lawfulness of the forms of the oath then current in Scotland, the contentious clause being that in which the burgess professed the true religion professed within the realm. According to Dale Jorgenson, "...The Patronage Act, enacted under the reign of Queen Anne (1702-14), gave lay patrons the right to present ministers to parishes. This act of patronage was an affront to classic Presbyterianism, and resulted in a division between Burghers who accepted the Burghers' Oath and its consequent patronage, and the Anti-Burghers who would not accept the oath."

References