Thomas Burgon

Thomas Burgon (b. 1787 d. 1858 age 71) was a merchant who traded between London, Greece, and Turkey, and Smyrna in particular. He was also a connoisseur of Greek antiquities. During his lifetime he collected and documented over 300 artifacts, many of which are now in the British Museum. To document his collection he created watercolour paintings of his collections, and these have ended up in the Ashmolean Museum, and you will find them available online via this web site.

While in Smyrna Burgon married Catherine Marguerite de Cramer. They had six children, one of whom was the notable fundamentalist bible scholar and Dean of Chichester, John William Burgon. Unfortunately Thomas Burgon was unable to make an adequate living as a merchant and chose instead to become a member of the coin department at the British Museum. He offered his collection of antiquities to the museum in 1842. He is buried in Holywell cemetery, Oxford, where most of his family are also buried.