Daniel Burrows

Daniel Burrows (October 26, 1766 – January 23, 1858) was a United States Representative from Connecticut and a state legislator during the early national and antebellum periods. He was born at Fort Hill, Connecticut, then a part of Groton in New London County, where he pursued preparatory studies in the local schools. Little is recorded about his parents or early family life, but he was part of a family that later produced other public officials, including his nephew Lorenzo Burrows, who became a United States Representative from New York. As a young man, Daniel Burrows developed practical skills and entered into local commerce in southeastern Connecticut.

In his early adulthood, Burrows engaged in the manufacture of carriages and wagons at New London, Connecticut, a growing seaport and commercial center. His work in manufacturing placed him within the expanding market economy of New England in the years following the American Revolution. After a period in business, he turned to religious study, undertaking the study of theology. He was subsequently ordained as a minister of the Methodist Church, reflecting the spread of Methodism in the early nineteenth century and its appeal among artisans, tradesmen, and rural communities in New England. His dual experience in both commerce and the ministry contributed to his standing in local society and helped prepare him for public office.

Burrows entered public life as a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, serving from 1816 to 1820 and again in 1826. During this period, Connecticut was undergoing significant political change, moving away from its colonial charter toward a more modern constitutional framework. In 1818, he served as a delegate to the Connecticut constitutional convention, which drafted and adopted the state’s first formal constitution, replacing the colonial charter of 1662. His participation in the convention placed him among the group of leaders who helped redefine the structure of state government and expand the political rights of Connecticut’s citizens. In addition to his legislative duties, he was appointed one of the commissioners to establish the boundary line between the States of Connecticut and Massachusetts, a technical and politically sensitive task that required negotiation and careful survey work.

On the national stage, Burrows was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Seventeenth Congress, serving a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1821, to March 3, 1823. His election came at a time when the Democratic-Republican Party dominated national politics during the so‑called “Era of Good Feelings,” following the decline of the Federalist Party. Representing Connecticut in the House, he served during the administration of President James Monroe, a period marked by debates over internal improvements, tariffs, and the continuing implications of the Missouri Compromise. Burrows did not seek renomination in 1822 and thus concluded his federal legislative service at the end of his term.

After leaving Congress, Burrows became a resident of Middletown, Connecticut, where he lived from 1823 to 1854. Middletown, located along the Connecticut River, was an important commercial and shipping center, and Burrows’s experience in trade and public affairs suited him to federal service there. From 1823 to 1847 he served as a surveyor and inspector of customs for the port of Middletown, overseeing the enforcement of customs laws, the collection of duties, and the regulation of maritime commerce. This long tenure in a federal customs position reflected both the trust placed in him by national authorities and his continued engagement with the economic life of his state. He appears to have combined this work with ongoing involvement in local affairs, maintaining the public profile he had established as a legislator and clergyman.

In his later years, Burrows left Middletown and returned to the southeastern part of Connecticut. He died in Mystic, then a village within the town of Groton, on January 23, 1858, at the age of ninety-one. He was interred in Elm Grove Cemetery, a prominent burial ground in Mystic. Living from the colonial era through the middle of the nineteenth century, Daniel Burrows’s life encompassed the American Revolution, the formation of the federal union, and the early development of the nation’s political institutions. Through his work as a manufacturer, Methodist minister, state legislator, constitutional delegate, boundary commissioner, member of Congress, and customs official, he contributed to the civic and political life of Connecticut over the course of several decades.