Spouse: (1) Rebecca Slocum (1682–1729), (2) Amy Doughty (1695-1747).

Children: Mary Burling (1706–1727), Benjamin Burling (1708–1745), William Burling Jr. (1708–1745), Rebecca Burling 1711–1736), Hannah Burling (1713–1777), Sarah Burling (1715–1762), Ebenezer Burling (1717–1758), Amy Burling (1724-1741). Kinship: Seventh great-granduncle of the post–World War II Smith generation, who are descended from his brother Edward Burling (1674–1749).

Early Life and Family William Burling was born in 1678 in Barking, Essex, into a family of English Quakers who endured periods of persecution for their nonconformity. His father, Edward Burling, was a wheelwright and tradesman who, with his wife Grace Norington, emigrated to the Colony of New York around 1680. The Burlings settled in Flushing, Long Island, a community notable for its religious diversity and its early defense of liberty of conscience, as expressed in the 1657 Flushing Remonstrance.

William grew up within this climate of principled dissent. The family joined the Flushing Meeting of the Society of Friends, one of the oldest Quaker congregations in North America, established in 1672. Like many Friends of the period, the Burlings pursued modest trades and lived by the values of simplicity, equality, and peace.

Ministry and Witness against Slavery William Burling became a minister among Friends and was one of the first American Quakers known to have spoken publicly and persistently against slavery. His moral awakening occurred early: as he later wrote, “the Lord by his Spirit manifested the evil to me before I was twelve years of age.”

At a time when many prominent Friends in New York and Pennsylvania still held enslaved Africans, Burling’s protests were remarkable for both their clarity and courage. As early as 1718, he circulated a tract entitled An Address to the Elders of the Church, in which he challenged his fellow Quakers to examine the inconsistency between their profession of spiritual equality and their ownership of human beings.

He wrote:

“A weighty concern from the Lord is and hath been at times for many years on my spirit, in consideration of this un-Christian liberty being indulged in the church—for it is in itself none of the least of the world’s corruptions... The Lord by his Spirit manifested the evil to me before I was twelve years of age, and since from time to time I have had drawings in mind to reprove and testify against it. Nor have I been altogether silent, although much discouraged by reason of its being practiced by so many Friends—yea, elders too.”

He acknowledged that formal condemnation of slavery within the Society would be slow and difficult, but he urged his readers to persist “that the judgment of Truth may be brought forth into victory.”

Influence and Legacy William Burling’s testimony predates the more widely known anti-slavery writings of John Woolman and Anthony Benezet by several decades. His Address circulated in manuscript form among New York and Pennsylvania Friends, helping to prepare the ground for later corporate actions by the Society of Friends against slavery.

The Flushing Meeting records note his consistent “tenderness and uprightness,” and later Quaker historians recognized him as one of the earliest voices to denounce the moral evil of human bondage within the American colonies. By the mid-eighteenth century, the Yearly Meetings of Philadelphia and New York would take formal stands against slaveholding, developments that owed much to Burling’s early prophetic witness.

He remained active in the Flushing Meeting until his death in 1743.

Historical Setting The Flushing Meeting House, built in 1694 and still standing, was the spiritual center of Burling’s life. Its members were a diverse group of English, Dutch, and West Indian settlers united by the Quaker vision of the Inner Light. The meeting’s early tolerance extended to its protection of Jews, Anabaptists, and dissenters of all kinds—a radical position in colonial America. Burling’s voice emerged from this environment of conscience, compassion, and principled resistance to worldly injustice.