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JohnBurgess

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 10 months ago

John Burgess & Son of London

In 1760 George III succeeded to the Throne and it was in this year that William Burgess, a country grocer, sent his son John to London to enter the trade of "Oilman and Italian Warehouseman."

 

Fine quality goods were imported from abroad: Salad Oils, Truffles, Olives, and the best Anchovies from Gorgona, along with many other items to tickle the Epicurean palate. John Burgess' establishment in the Strand quickly gained him considerable repute, and he had to seek larger premises.

 

In The Morning Post, May 7th, 1779, he was advising the "Nobility and Gentry" that he was moving from No. 101 the Strand to No. 107. He was a firm believer in the power of advertising, and did not miss an opportunity for an insertion in the first issue of The Times in 1788. The advertisement is reproduced here, and it is of interest to note that of all the commercial undertakings who advertised in that first issue, the House of Burgess alone survives.

 

The interests of John Burgess & Son were soon reaching towards every corner of the globe, but it was from the Anchovies caught by the busy fleet of Gorgona fishing boats, off Leghorn, that the chief production of the business soon derived. Not content to rest on his laurels John Burgess invented many of his own table delicacies, most famous of which was his "Original and Superior Essence of Anchovies" then, as now, the best sauce for fish and all fish dishes.

 

In 1820, the year in which that flamboyant figure the Prince Regent became King, John Burgess died. His son had joined him in the business and later his grandson. He was buried at Odiham his native village, and a portrait of him hangs today in the Westminster City Hall.

 

 

Thanks and acknowledgements to Rayner Burgess Limited

 

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