by Mark Antony Lower, M.A., F.S.A. in his book 'The Worthies of Sussex' published in 1865
From an early period of his life, this able antiquary and indefatigable collector had turned his attention to a county history, and made it the principal object of his leisure. By a careful examination of records and deeds both public and private he amassed a large collection of manuscripts concerning the manorial, genealogical, and general history of Sussex. He maintained a correspondence with nearly every person of education in the county, and personally inspected most if not the whole of the parish registers in Sussex, extracting therefrom the name of every person of gentle position, marking each in the register-books with a peculiar 'tick', well known to Sussex genealogists. He also employed Lambert, Grimm, and other creditable draughtsmen to take views of all the churches, castles, monasteries, old mansions, &c., in the county, and those views are still preserved among his MSS. valuable memoranda of objects which in the course of nearly a century have either undergone great changes or utterly passed out of existence. It was in one of his numerous visits to Sussex churches that, in 1775, Dr. Burrell discovered at Isfield, and caused to be preserved at Lewes. the elegant and valuable memorial of Gundrada, daughter of William the Conqueror, and foundress of Lewes Priory.
For the last nine years of his life he endured much physical pain, and finding his nerves suffering from the mental exertion brought to bear on his great undertaking, he was reluctantly induced to forego it, and to bequeath the materials he had amassed to the great national collection, in the hope that they might prove the basis upon which some future antiquary might publish a history of the county.[1] The terms of the bequest, in his will dated December 9th, 1790, are: I bequeath my fifteen folio volumes of manuscript, and my eight large folio volumes of drawings executed by Grimm and Lambert, relating to the County of Sussex, to the Trustees of the British Museum for the time being, upon condition that my family and their descendants may have free access at all reasonable and proper hours to read and inspect them. The number of volumes actually in the Museum is, however, much greater, being either thirty-nine or forty; but this may be the result of a sub-division in rebinding the manuscripts.
Sir William Burrell left several children. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Charles Merrik Burrell, Bart., M.P., who represented Shoreham and the Rape of Bramber in fourteen consecutive parliaments, and died in 1862, the Father of the House of Commons, leaving two sons, Sir Percy Burrell, Bart., of Knepp Castle, M.P., and Walter Wyndham Burrell, Esq., of Oakenden, in Cuckfield, now living.[2]
[1] Horsfield
[2] Among Sussex poetesses, (whose number is very small) must be reckoned LADY BURRELL, whose works as given in the Bibliotheca Britannica are Poems, 1793, two volumes, 8vo.; The Thmybriad from Xenophon's Cyropaedia, 1794, 8vo.; Telemachus, 1794, 8vo.; Theodora, or the Spanish Daughter; a Tragedy, 1800, 8vo.; Maximian; a Tragedy from Corneille, 1800, 8vo.; The Test of Virtue and other poems, 1811, 8vo.