Thomas Burr

Thomas Gelasius Burr was a Gothic engineer in the late Golden Age best known for inventing the Burr Cotton Gin in 1804 which was an expansion on the original gin by Edward Ashley in 1780. He was born in Otford, however, he moved to Roseway in late 1799 where he began submitting patents to the government in hopes of booming his career but he failed for several years. In the meanwhile, he worked as a bricklayer to pay off his rent on his house. Obviously Thomas was no rich man in his early 20's, however, he soon came by a lady not much younger than him named Henrietta who was a Newbury undergraduate that was able to keep him busy until his "magnum opus" of engineering which was in 1804. His finances grew tremendously after his famed Cotton Gin and afterwards in the many following years, he created some minor works and lived the rest of his life in the countryside with his family.