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Local figure

Robert Armistead Burwell

Robert Burwell became minister of the Presbyterian Church in Hillsborough in 1835 and moved there with his wife, Anna, and Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly, whom his father had lent the couple as a wedding gift in 1832. Anna founded a girls' school, and the couple relied on Keckly's forced labor to raise twelve children and board pupils.

Source: Encyclopedia Virginia (Virginia Humanities): Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly (1818-1907), by Jennifer Fleischner

4 works about Robert Armistead Burwell are indexed here.

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Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens its own page, with its events date by date.

StorylineHillsborough Presbyterian Church, 1815–18371815–1837 · 12 events · The first pastor of Hillsborough's Presbyterian church strained relations with his congregation by advocating religious education, Sunday schools and preaching for enslaved people. The brick church on West Tryon Street was built with money from a lottery the state authorized, and in September 1816 Mary W. Burke, eight others and the Rev. John Knox Witherspoon organized the church. In 1823 the session admonished two members for trading in enslaved people without punishing them. Witherspoon ended seventeen years as pastor in 1833. In 1834 six enslaved women were baptized, and in 1835 Robert Burwell began a thirteen-year pastorate; the church bought a manse, and a Sessions House was built for the Sunday school.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 18 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Six enslaved women are baptized into Hillsborough Presbyterian Church The Rev. S. J. Price baptized six women held by the Nash, Watters, Scott and Waddell households, and Frederick Nash and William J. Bingham received them as members. In the twenty years that followed under Robert Burwell, the church took in only one communicant of color. People: Frederick Nash, William James Bingham, Hugh Waddell, Robert Armistead Burwell Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Robert BurwellBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 56
  2. Elizabeth Hobbs is brought to Hillsborough in the household of Robert and Anna Burwell When the Reverend Robert Burwell became minister of the Presbyterian church in Hillsborough, he moved his household from Virginia, bringing the enslaved Elizabeth Hobbs, later Keckly. By her own account she was nearly eighteen. People: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly, Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna Burwell Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Elizabeth Keckly, Robert Burwell, Anna Burwell, Elizabeth HobbsEncyclopedia Virginia (Virginia Humanities): Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly (1818–1907), by Jennifer Fleischner
  3. Robert Burwell becomes pastor of the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church Burwell began a thirteen-year pastorate, and he and his wife opened a school for young women whose income let him serve the church on a small salary. He returned for a second term in the 1850s. People: Robert Armistead Burwell Place: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church, Hillsborough · Also named: Robert BurwellSearch the index · Pauline O. Lloyd and Allen A. Lloyd, History of the Churches of Hillsborough, N.C., ca. 1766-1962 (1963), scan p. 135
  4. Schoolmaster William J. Bingham repeatedly beats Elizabeth Hobbs at Anna Burwell's urging Anna Burwell had William J. Bingham, the Hillsborough schoolmaster, flog Elizabeth Hobbs over a period of weeks in an attempt to break her spirit. Her memoir says Robert Burwell also beat her, and that she was eighteen at the time. People: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly, Robert Armistead Burwell, William James Bingham, Margaret Anna Burwell Place: Hillsborough · Also named: William J. Bingham, Anna Burwell, Robert Burwell, Elizabeth HobbsDocumenting the American South: Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (Keckley, 1868)
  5. Hillsborough Presbyterian Church buys the house as its manse The church's trustees bought lots 152 and 153 in January 1836, renovated the house, and gave it to their minister, Robert Armistead Burwell, and his family, who had arrived from Virginia late the year before. People: Robert Armistead Burwell Place: HillsboroughElizabeth Keckly Center at the Burwell School: virtual exhibit timeline
  6. Burwell School for young women operates Robert and Margaret Anna Burwell operated their Hillsborough school for girls from 1837 to 1857. People: Margaret Anna Burwell, Robert Armistead Burwell, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly Place: HillsboroughNCpedia
  7. Anna Burwell opens a school for girls in Hillsborough Anna Burwell advertised that she would open a female school in Hillsborough on July 17, 1837, teaching the usual English branches, with music available. She and her husband, the Rev. Robert Burwell, ran it in their home until 1857. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna Burwell Place: Burwell School, Hillsborough · Also named: Robert Burwell, Anna BurwellInternet Archive: Charles L. Coon, North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840: A Documentary History (1915)
  8. Frances Armistead Burwell is born to Robert and Anna Burwell of Hillsborough Frances Armistead Burwell, called Fanny, was the fourth of the twelve children of Robert and Margaret Anna Burwell. People: Frances Armistead Burwell, Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna Burwell Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · Orange County NCGenWeb: Burwell School
  9. The Hillsborough Debating Society leads the town's Independence Day celebration The Hillsborough Debating Society marked Independence Day on Saturday, July 3, with a procession from the court house to the Masonic Hall, a prayer by the Rev. Robert Burwell, a reading of the Declaration by James Collins and an oration by George W. Reeves. Members and guests then dined at Major Palmer's Union Hotel, with Thomas Clancy presiding and Henry K. Nash as vice president. People: David Parker, Robert Armistead Burwell, Henry Kollock Nash Place: Court house and Masonic Hall, Hillsborough · Also named: Robert Burwell, James Collins, George W. Reeves, Thomas ClancySearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, July 8, 1841, p. 3
  10. Hillsborough Literary Association forms with Dennis Heartt as secretary A Literary Association was formed at a meeting in the Presbyterian session house in Hillsborough on the evening of January 20, 1842, after a preliminary meeting the night before, with Frederick Nash as president; James S. Smith, Cadwallader Jones and Robert Burwell as vice presidents; Dennis Heartt as secretary; and Walter A. Norwood as treasurer. Heartt, a charter member, had helped organize it. People: Dennis Heartt, Frederick Nash, Cadwallader Jones, Robert Armistead Burwell, James Strudwick Smith, Walter A. Norwood Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Robert Burwell · Also mentions: Presbyterian session houseSearch the index · DigitalNC: Wilmington Chronicle, February 9, 1842, page 2 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, January 27, 1842, p. 3
  11. Mitchell asks the Burwells to sell his wife Mary Ann with him Mitchell, an enslaved man who had run from his owner, came to Robert Burwell asking that he and his wife Mary Ann, enslaved in the Burwell household, be sold together. He worked at the house for a week; then Burwell told him to go back to his master, and he left on February 17. People: Robert Armistead Burwell Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Mary Ann, Robert Burwell, MitchellElizabeth Keckly Center research database: Mitchell
  12. The Orange Volunteers leave Hillsborough for the Mexican War After bad weather held them a day, the Orange Volunteers received a Bible each from the Orange County Bible Society in a ceremony at the court house, with an address by the Rev. Robert Burwell, and marched for Chapel Hill and Raleigh on their way to Wilmington, escorted out of town by a crowd of citizens. People: Robert Armistead Burwell Place: Court house, Hillsborough · Also named: Robert BurwellSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, January 28, 1847, p. 3
Show all 18 dated events
  1. Robert Burwell buys the house and has John Berry enlarge it Burwell resigned his pulpit and bought the two lots from the church for $800 and back pay. The builder John Berry added a central hall and two rooms and turned the house to face Churton Street. A deed of trust of July 16, 1850 shows Burwell still owing Berry $2,500 and the church trustees $800, secured on the lots and on enslaved members of the household. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, John Berry Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: Churton StreetElizabeth Keckly Center at the Burwell School: virtual exhibit timeline · Also: Burwell School Historic Site Task Force report
  2. Robert Burwell pledges Mary Ann and her children against his building debts A deed of trust set out Burwell's debts of $2,500 to the builder John Berry and $800 to the Presbyterian trustees, and offered as security the enslaved seamstress Mary Ann, her four children and any children born to her, and a girl named Ann. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, John Berry, Thomas Webb Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Mary AnnElizabeth Keckly Center research database: Mary Ann
  3. The Burwells resolve to sell their cook Hannah Hannah, who had come from Virginia with the family and cooked for the school, had been drinking heavily through 1855. Anna Burwell wrote to her daughter Fanny that she had made up her mind: Hannah would be sent to Richmond to be sold. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna Burwell Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Anna Burwell, HannahBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 14
  4. Fanny Burwell dies aboard the steamer Jamestown as her parents bring her home to Hillsborough Fanny Burwell had gone to New York to complete her music education, but fell ill with erysipelas in early March. Her mother went north to nurse her, and she died at dawn on the steamer Jamestown between New York and Norfolk with both parents beside her, in her eighteenth year; her body was brought home to Hillsborough for burial. People: Frances Armistead Burwell, Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna Burwell Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, May 7, 1856, p. 3 (obituary)
  5. Burwell School closes as the Burwells move to Charlotte The Burwells closed their Hillsborough school in 1857, the same year they took charge of a girls' school in Charlotte. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna Burwell Place: Burwell School, HillsboroughDigitalNC: Burwell School Historic Site Materials Now Available on DigitalNC
  6. The Collins family buys the former Burwell School and calls it the Beehive Members of the Collins family of Somerset Place, who had left Union-held eastern North Carolina, paid Robert Burwell $3,500 for the house and four lots. By 1863 about forty family members and enslaved servants lived there, and the family named it the Beehive. People: Robert Armistead Burwell Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Elizabeth Alethea Collins, Robert BurwellElizabeth Keckly Center research database: The Collins family and the Beehive years

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Robert Armistead Burwell, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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Indexed works

Works about or by Robert Armistead Burwell. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Burwell School

North Carolina ECHO (Project) · 2002

Photograph from the Burwell School in Hillsborough, taken 6 April 2002 for the North Carolina ECHO project. Its caption recalls the school's founder, the Reverend Robert Burwell, who arrived in 1835 as the town's Presbyterian pastor.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell Diary [1866-1871]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1866

Diary of Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell covering 7 January 1866 to 27 January 1871, ending in the year of her death. Born in Virginia in 1810, she and her husband, Robert Armistead Burwell, had earlier run a girls' school in Hillsborough, where she served as principal.

Included because: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Burwell, Robert Armistead, 1802-1895.

DigitalNC DPLA

Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell Diary [1855]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1855

Anna Burwell's diary for 1855, from 1 January to 17 December, written while she lived in Hillsborough and served as principal of Mr. and Mrs. Burwell's Female School, which she ran with her husband, Robert Armistead Burwell.

Included because: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Burwell, Robert Armistead, 1802-1895.

DigitalNC DPLA

The Circular [1848-1851]

1848

Circular for Mr. and Mrs. Burwell's Female School in Hillsborough, 1848 to 1851, the only complete one known. It gives the course of study, tuition, patrons and a roll of students. Robert and Margaret Anna Burwell ran the school for young white women from 1837 to 1857.

Included because: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Burwell, Robert Armistead, 1802-1895.

DigitalNC DPLA

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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