William Henville Burford (24 January 1807 – 23 October 1895) was an apprenticed butcher with some experience as a tallow merchant and chandler in Cannon Street, St George's East, in the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

. In 1838 he emigrated to

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

for his health's sake with his wife and three daughters on the ''

Pestonjee Bomanjee The ''Pestonjee Bomanjee'' was a wooden sailing ship built in 1834 by James Lang of Dumbarton, Scotland. She was a three-masted wooden barque of 595 tons, 130 feet in length, 31.5 feet in breadth, first owned by John Miller Jnr and Company, Glas ...

'', arriving at Glenelg on 11 October. Initially he found work as a painter and glazier, and soon had one of the larger businesses in the Colony. In 1840, when a recession had made those trades unprofitable, he was able to start a soap and candle factory, W. H. Burford & Sons, in 134 (154?)

Grenfell Street Grenfell Street () is a major street in the north-east quarter of the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. The street runs west-east from King William Street to East Terrace. On the other side of King William Street, it continues as Currie S ...

. The business failed several times, but revived with the opening of the Burra copper mine in 1848, then the Moonta and

Wallaroo Wallaroo is a common name for several species of moderately large macropods, intermediate in size between the kangaroos and the wallabies. The word "wallaroo" is from the Dharug ''walaru'', and not a portmanteau of the words "kangaroo" and "wal ...

mines around 1863. Burford was an alderman of the Adelaide Town Council for 1840 and 1841. During his second term he earned the nickname of "ninepenny dips" for his proposal to more than double the council rates to that figure (and "dip" being a form of candle), and was reviled for proposing other stringencies. He was not elected the following year and was vindicated when the Council collapsed, bankrupt. Burford was elected to the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was creat ...

for the seat of

City of Adelaide The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia and is legally defined as the capital city of South ...

in 1857. He was prominent in debates and a strong supporter of Robert Torrens' Real Property Act, but resigned in 1859. Burford was a devout churchgoer, worshipping with the Independent Baptists, then Scotch Baptists and finally the Unley Church of Christ.

Family of W. H. Burford

He married three times: *Elizabeth Messent (c. 1814 – 14 July 1858) in May 1833Burford, William Henville
Taylor, Herbert R. ''Australian Dictionary of Biography online'' accessed 8 July 2011 :Children: ::Elizabeth "Edith" Burford (c. 1832 – 28 January 1900) :::m. Charles Bowen (c. 1834 – 5 September 1870) on 10 April 1857; their eldest son F. A. "Arthur" Bowen became manager of Burford & Sons. :::m. Rev. R. K. Finlayson (27 April 1839 – 27 March 1917) on 19 August 1884 (his first wife, also Elizabeth, died 1880) ::Ann Burford second daughter (c. 1837 – 1 April 1852) ::Sarah Burford (died 1838 on voyage) ::Gertrude Burford (c. 1841 – 18 August 1914) married Robert Eddy 10 September 1885 ::Benjamin Burford (c. 1843 – 18 May 1905) married Mary Jane Ware (died 24 July 1930) on 24 May 1866. He died, aged 65, from a self-inflicted gunshot after suffering head pains and deafness for seven years. He had only five years previously built a large house " Attunga" on 4.5 acres (1.8ha) at 120

Kensington Road Kensington Road is a section of road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the A315 road. It runs along the south edge of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. To the west it becomes ...

, in what was then Rose Park. ::William Burford (11 December 1845 – 6 March 1925) who oversaw the greatest development of the company *Mary Ann Messent (c. 1815 – 22 September 1879), (sister of first wife Elizabeth Messent), on 31 October 1861 *Frances Sarah Ann Hawkes, née Symonds, the widow of John H. M. Hawkes (c. 1827 – 14 October 1858) in 1880.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burford, William 1807 births 1895 deaths Australian manufacturing businesspeople Members of the South Australian House of Assembly