15 Facts About Tristam Burges

Tristam Burges was a US Representative from Rhode Island, and great-great-uncle of Rhode Island politician Theodore Francis Green.

Tristam Burges's father was a cooper and farmer, and a Revolutionary War veteran.

Tristam Burges was graduated from Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island, valedictorian of the class of 1796.

Tristam Burges studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1799 and commenced practice in Providence, Rhode Island.

Tristam Burges married in 1801 to a daughter of Hon.

Tristam Burges served as member of the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1811 and a prominent member of the Federalist Party.

Tristam Burges was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island in May 1815, serving for just one year.

In 1815 Tristam Burges was named as professor of oratory and belles letters at Brown University; he taught lectures in rhetoric and oratory.

Tristam Burges was elected to the US Congress in 1825 as a Federalist and served for ten years.

Tristam Burges was known for his witty repartee with the anti-New England Virginian John Randolph of Roanoke.

Tristam Burges favored a protective trade tariff, and he lost a re-election race because he refused to accept a tariff compromise proposed by Henry Clay.

Tristam Burges was elected as an Adams candidate to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses and elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-first through the Twenty-third Congresses.

Tristam Burges served as chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions, Committee on Military Pensions, Committee on Revolutionary Claims, Committee on Invalid Pensions.

Tristam Burges died on his estate, Watchemoket Farm in 1853 in the town of Seekonk, Massachusetts.

Tristam Burges was interred in North Burial Ground, Providence, Rhode Island.