William Albert Burge, son of William, was born 18 February 1861 in London, England, and died 27 August 1928 in Mesopotamia, Trumbull County, Ohio.  He married Emily Ann Pritchard 01 December 1883 in Widcombe, County of Somerset, District of Bath, England, daughter of Peter Pritchard and Sarah Stoneman.  Note:  Peter and Sarah Pritchard had four other children:  Ruth, Ellen, Mary and Joseph.  Joseph married and emigrated to Australia
 

By one account, William was raised by his grandparents, and sent to apprentice as a shoemaker when he was fourteen years old.  When actually William came to Cheddar is unclear.  By trade, William was a paper maker and he worked at the paper mills in Wookey.   

Emily's family kept a public house called the White Lion Inn, located in Batheaston,, and were apparently very musically inclined; in her youth,  Sarah Pritchard was said to have been an opera singer on the London stage.  In Cheddar, Emily Burge worked at the Cliff's Hotel, which was once a grand teahouse.

In Cheddar, the Burge family first lived in an area called Small's Cottages; later to a larger home in an area called Bradley Cross.  These homes are located on present day Silver Street near Tuttor's Hill. (photo)  While living here, the Burge's became quite adept in the growing of strawberries and had a large orchard there.  The Burge children attended the National School, also known as the Episcopal Church School, in Cheddar;  the building is still standing today, however it has been taken over by the forestry
service.

While in England, the Burge family worshipped at the Parish Church (photo), dedicated to St. Andrew, a several hundred year old architectural wonder which was built on the site of an early Roman settlement.  Historians believe that a church has existed in this location since 100 A.D.

William and Emily had seven children, all born at home in Small's Cottages and the
entire family, eventually left England and came to the United States, settling in
Mesopotamia, Trumbull County, Ohio. The Burge's came over on the Lucania, a Cunard ship which was a sister ship to the Lusitania.  The trip took five days on the water, and they arrived in New York City.   The children of William and Emily Burge are:

(1)   Mary Polly Burge, born April 1884 in Cheddar, Somerset, England; died 3 July 1964 in Mesopotamia, Ohio .  She married Dan Cox in 1904.    Polly was the first Burge child to come to the United States, making the trip with a few girls from the  Cox family.  Polly and Dan Cox were both members of the United Methodist Episcopal Church of Mesopotamia, and they celebrated one of the first marriages solemnized there.  They had one child, a daughter.  Both Mary and Dan Cox are buried in the Fairlawn Cemetery in Mesopotamia, Ohio (photo).

(2)    William Burge, born 08 June 1886 in Cheddar, Somerset, England; died March
1967 in Trumbull County, Ohio.  William never married. He made his home in
Mesopotamia, Ohio and he is buried in the Fairlawn Cemetery there (photo).  William
was the second member of the family to come to America;  he came to the United
States on the ship Haverford in 1906.

(3)    Ellen Nell Burge, born December 1889 in Collumpton, England; died  June 9 1956.  She married Hurd.  Ellen and her husband relocated to the West and nothing is further known about them.  Ellen came to the US in 1908 with her parents.

(4)    George Reginald Burge, born 23 April 1892 in Cheddar, County of Somerset,
England; died 23 July 1980 in Mineral Ridge, Mahoning County, Ohio.  Reginald was in the second group, along with his brother William, to come to the United States.  They came on the ship Haverford  in 1906, leaving from Liverpool, England and arriving in New York City.  The boys worked for various farmers in the Mespo area, earning enough money to pay for passage for his parents and remaining brothers and sisters to come.   He married Ethel Lorene Thompson 12 April 1924, the daughter of Milo Thompson and Vinne Curtis, and they had six children.
               

(5)     Rhoda Sarah Burge, born 1896 in Cheddar, Somerset, England; died September
1957 in Braceville, Trumbull County, Ohio.  She married  Charles Delmer Wildman, the
son of Alvin Wildman and Sarah Spencer.  Both Rhoda and Charles are buried in
Fairlawn Cemetery in  Mesopotamia, Ohio     (photo)

(6)     John Gulliver Burge, born 03 December 1897 in Cheddar, England and he died 1984 in Mesopotamia, Trumbull County, Ohio  He married Evelyn Gardner and they had two children.  John came to the US in 1908 along with his parents and he was a well known farmer in Trumbull County for most of his life.  He was also a good watercolor artist.  Jack and Evelyn are both buried in Fairlawn Cemetery in Mespo (photo).  They had two children. 

                           (photo Jack)  (photo Evelyn)
       
(7)     Thomas Greenway Burge, born 03 December 1897 in Cheddar, England; died 20 May 1981 in Chardon, Ohio.  Tom and Jack were twins, and they both traveled to the United States in 1908 with their parents.   He was an accomplished musician and worked for the highway department for some time.  He married Julia Elizabeth Ducat 22 April 1922 in Mesopotamia, Trumbull County, Ohio, the daughter of Thomas Ducat and Emma Gano.  (photo)  They had three children.


Should you have further interest in this  Burge family, please email me directly. 
Certainly there are further generations, however to ensure their privacy, I have cut
off here.

You might want to review our Burge Genealogical Database for a name-by-name
linkage way to review the family and explore the familial relationships.   Some of the surnames which are directly connected to the Burge line are as follows: