William Burleigh was born in Northwood, NH, in 1785 and raised in Gilmanton. He worked as a schoolteacher, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1815, when he moved to South Berwick to open a law practice. He married Deborah Currier of South Berwick in 1817. In 1818, her brother Micajah Currier died, leaving her "all my household furniture which I shall not otherwise dispose of; likewise the dwelling house, stable and land adjacent where I now live." The location of Currier's property is not known, but it may have been here that the Burleighs built their house, which stands today. (Currier's bequest also directs Burleigh to use Currier's funds to create a "burying ground for the inhabitants of Berwick and South Berwick..." This became Portland Street Cemetery, with Currier's tomb the first placed there.)

Between 1818 and 1825 the Burleighs had six children, Micajah Currier, Mary C., William, John Holmes, Charles H. and Sarah E.

In 1820, Maine separated from Massachusetts and became a state. For one term, Maine was represented in Washington by at-large Congressmen, and then in 1823, when the First Congressional District was formed, Burleigh was elected its first United States Representative. In the 19th Congress he served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury. He was elected to the 18th, 19th and 20th Congresses.

"Mr. Burleigh was a very successful lawyer," states "The South Berwick Register" compiled by Mitchell & Campbell in 1904, "and one who won the approval from his towns folk for getting a longed for appropriation from the Government, for dredging and blasting the river channel between the upper and lower landings, so that commerce was expected to take a new start in these busy waters. It is interesting to note that Mr. Burleigh had to, and did, work what we call a political trick, to get the above bill passed. The clause asking for the appropriation was worded so that it read 'an appropriation for the "Maine" branch of the Piscataqua.' Many supported the bill, because they thought it was to aid Dover, because the main branch extended to that city. The letter (e) on the word main was not noticed until the bill was passed."

Before serving his third term Burleigh died in South Berwick in 1827 at the age of 42. The family's story demonstrates the precariousness of life in those days, even for leading families. While Deborah Burleigh remained in their home and raised their young children, family resources dwindled. Two sons had to leave school and go away to sea as deck hands. Micajah C. Burleigh had been sent to Strafford Academy and New London Academy, but left to become a sailor for 14 years, ending as a captain in command of his own ships, according to "History of Strafford County." He later returned to South Berwick and worked in the Parks Store, then at W. & E. Griffin, iron founders, where he eventually owned the business. Moving to Somersworth, NH, he founded the Somersworth Machine Company and eventually purchased the Dover Iron Foundry. In the 1850s he served as New Hampshire state representative and state senator. He died in 1881.

Michajah Currier's younger brother, John Holmes Burleigh, born on October 9,1822, attended Berwick Academy, also went to sea, as a deck hand at age 16 for wages of seven dollars a month (according to The South Berwick Register, 1904). The 1880 History of York County relates that John Burleigh sailed several times around the world in the 1840s, and was promoted through the ranks till he became captain of his own ship‹but not without some harrowing experiences. He survived a hurricane off Bermuda, and later was shipwrecked off the Orkney Islands. In 1850, bringing his wife, the former Matilda Buffum of North Berwick, Capt. Burleigh sailed around Cape Horn to Calcutta, then returned by the Cape of Good Hope.

On Capt. Burleigh’s return in 1855, an uncle, the younger brother of William Burleigh, John A. Burleigh, had become mill agent at Great Falls Manufacturing Co. in Somersworth, NH. Perhaps taking a cue from this uncle, Capt. Burleigh invested his total fortune, in the woolen mills in South Berwick on the Great Works River, on the site of the early waterpower site dating from 1650. (Some accounts put his investment at about $15,000; "The South Berwick Register, 1904" says the amount was $150,000.) This factory was located by the Brattle Street bridge (today just off Route 236 and Academy Street). By 1860 the product of Burleigh’s Newichawannock Woolen Mills was valued at about $300,000 per year. These woolen mills continued in operation until 1949.

Like his father, Capt. Burleigh went into politics. He first represented South Berwick in the state legislatures of 1862, 1864, 1866 and 1872, and as Maine's delegate at large attended the Republican national convention at Baltimore that nominated Lincoln and Johnson in 1864.

The same year, he built a large mansion and carriage house near Berwick Academy on Academy Street. In the York County Atlas of 1872, he was listed as the owner of both the Academy Street and Portland Street properties.

In 1872 and 1874, as his father 50 years before, John Holmes Burleigh was elected to Congress representing Maine’s First District. He served on the naval committee, was instrumental in perfecting the management of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and arranged for the building of the first lighthouse at Nubble Light.

Burleigh served as Berwick Academy trustee and as president of both the national and savings banks in South Berwick. He died in 1879, in a carriage accident on the bridge at Salmon Falls.

The house now contains Berwick Estates.

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