Tolland's Captain Burgess Sailed the Seven Seas

A pirate? From Tolland?

It may seem impossible, but it's likely that Tolland resident Captain Benjamin Burgess, who lived in the 18th century, was a legitimate pirate, or at least, a privateer.

Word of Burgess' nautical past stems from a Works Progress Administration cemetery list from 1934. Burgess is buried in a small cemetery that is next to Kollas Orchard.

The WPA inventory notes, "This Captain Burgess was supposed to be a pirate who would come into port at New London and ride horseback to his farm and hide out in a barn until dark, then come to the house and visit his family. There was a price on his head."

The cemetery list, along with a number of other records on Burgess, were compiled by Tolland Historical Society member Mark Danforth.

While the WPA employee may have labeled Burgess as a pirate, local historian Peter Palmer said that he more likely worked as a privateer during the Revolutionary War.

Governments gave privateers legal authority to attack foreign ships. While he's unsure which side may have worked with him, Palmer said that he expects Burgess felt an allegiance towards Connecticut and New England. Naval records from that era are notoriously difficult to find, Palmer said.

"If a government didn't want to fund a naval vessel, they said, 'You go do it for us and keep what you can steal,'" Palmer said of Burgess' likely profession.

Burgess was 46 when he died in 1797, meaning he was in his mid-20s when the Revolutionary War began. He most likely commanded 10 to 20 men on his ship, Palmer added.

And while Burgess no doubt had an exciting life on the high seas, he probably led a relatively normal life as a Tolland resident, according to Palmer.

Burgess owned several parcels of land, including some pieces near Shenipsit Lake and another parcel off of Grant Hill Road, near the Coventry line.

Like all other Tolland residents of the time, he most likely farmed his land and was quietly accepted as a townsperson.

"They probably just ignored when he wasn't around," Palmer said, suggesting that his neighbors wouldn't ask many questions about his long absences.

Burgess also had a family, consisting of his wife Rhoda and daughters Huldah, Cynthia, Nancy and Hannnah, according to Danforth's collected documents. A number of his daughters' children who died in the first few years of their lives are buried in the same cemetery as Burgess.

The paper trail ends with an account of Rhoda selling off property to settle some of Burgess' debts. And there is certainly no trail of clues for treasure hunters.

But at his final resting place, traces remain of the normal, rural life that Burgess led in Tolland. A simple verse is inscribed in his tombstone:

"Weep not for me

 Dry up your tears

I must lie here

Till Christ appears"