Edward Burd
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Edward Burd (1751-1833) was a Revolutionary officer in Pennsylvania and later a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
He was born in 1751, the son of James Burd. He studied law with his uncle, Pennsylvania Chief Justice Edward Shippen.
He was a member of the Berks County Bar, practicing in Reading, Pennsylvania until 1776, when he joined the colonial army as a volunteer, and attained the rank of Major during the Revolutionary War. He was captured at the Battle of Long Island, but once he was freed his ill health kept him from re-enlisting in the service. He at some point held the office of prothonotary of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and after the Revolution, he was a Justice of that Court. He married his cousin Elizabeth Shippen, the daughter of his uncle Edward.
Burd served in 1790 and 1791 as a trustee of the Academy and College of Philadelphia (the University of Pennsylvania in its original form), and then continued as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania until his death in 1831. His son Edward Shippen Burd attended the Academy of Philadelphia, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1794, and served on its board of trustees from 1831 to 1839 and 1842 to 1844.
Burd built a house in Philadelphia on the Schuylkill River, naming it "Ormiston" after the birthplace of his father.
