Early Life and Marriage Ebenezer Burling was born in 1717, the son of William Burling, a Quaker minister of Flushing, Long Island, and Rebecca Slocum, who came from another well-known Quaker family. The Burlings were part of the network of English and Dutch Quaker settlers who shaped early colonial Queens County, noted for their integrity, literacy, and skill in trade. The union of the Burling and Lawrence families began with the marriage of Ebenezer and Mary. Two of the siblings of Mary Lawrence, Ebenezer’s wife, also married Burlings. In 1754 Caleb Lawrence (1723–1799) married Sarah Burling (1729-1809), Ebenezer’s first cousin. John Lawrence (1731–1794) married Ann Burling (1735-1821), also a first cousin of Ebenezer.

In 1736, at age twenty, Ebenezer married Mary Lawrence (1718–1776) of the prominent Lawrence family of Flushing. Both were members of the Society of Friends. Their courtship, however, attracted the attention of their meeting. The records of the Flushing Monthly Meeting for 1737 record the following admonition:

“At a Monthly Meeting at ye Meeting house in fflushing ye 6th day of ye 8th month 1737…a paper subscribed by Ebenezer Burling & his wife Signifying their sorrow for & condemnation of their having been too fflamiliar with each other before marryage being read is ordered to be read publicly next first day after Meeting.”

This public repentance for “undue familiarity before marriage” was a standard form of Quaker discipline at the time and reflected the Society’s insistence on moral accountability. Despite the episode, Ebenezer and Mary remained respected members of their meeting, and their long marriage was marked by prosperity and numerous children.

Career and Property Ebenezer Burling established himself as a miller and landowner in Eastchester, then part of Westchester County, New York. He purchased a grist mill and adjoining acreage, integrating agricultural and commercial activity typical of Quaker entrepreneurs of the Hudson Valley. His business was evidently successful, and he became part of the growing network of Friends who combined conscientious religious life with practical enterprise.

The family’s Quaker faith shaped their daily conduct: the Burlings avoided oaths, military service, and extravagance, and they maintained close ties with the Friends’ meetings of Flushing, Purchase, and Westbury. Ebenezer’s name appears in the Records of the Westchester Monthly Meeting as a contributor to relief funds and as an overseer of property disputes.

Death and Descendants Ebenezer Burling died in 1758 at the age of forty-one, leaving his widow Mary Lawrence Burling with several young children. Their son Thomas Burling (1746–1831) became a cabinetmaker and craftsman in New York City, continuing the family’s reputation for industriousness and integrity. Through the marriages of the Burling daughters into the Lawrence and Rodman families, the Burlings were connected to a wide Quaker kinship circle extending from Flushing to Philadelphia. Two of the siblings of Mary Lawrence, Ebenezer’s wife, also married Burlington. In 1754 Caleb Lawrence married Sarah Buring, Ebenezer’s first cousin. John Lawrence married Ann Burling, also a first cousin of Ebenezer.

Legacy Ebenezer Burling’s life reflects the disciplined but humane spirit of colonial Quaker society. His family’s records—preserved in the minutes of the Flushing Meeting—illustrate the communal and moral standards that governed early Friends’ conduct, and his establishment in Eastchester shows the migration of Long Island Quakers northward in search of land and opportunity.