BURGESS, DANIEL (1645-1712), a learned and witty dissenting divine of the 17th century. born at Staines, in Middlesex, of which parish his father was minister. He was educated at Westminster school, and in 1660 was sent to Magdalen Hall, Oxford, but not beino. able conscientiously to subscribe the necessary formull, he quitted that university without taking his degree. In 1667, after taking orders, he was appointed by Lord Orrery to the head-mastership of a school recently established by that nobleman at Charleville in Munster, and soon after he became private chaplain to Lady Mervin, near Dublin. On his return from Ireland he openly avowed his Presbyterian principles, and frequently preached in contempt of the severe laws against nonconformity. For these offences he was 'imprisoned, but soon regaining his liberty he went to London, where he speedily collected a large congregation, as much by the somewhat fanatical fervour of his piety as by the ludicrous illustrations which he frequently employed in his sermons. Besides preaching, he gave instructions to private pupils, of whom the most distinguished was Henry St John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke.