The Burling family was among the earliest and most influential Quaker families in colonial New York, their story illustrating the transformation of the Society of Friends from a persecuted sect of English dissenters to a community that shaped the moral and commercial foundations of early America. The family’s origins lie in Barking, Essex, from which Edward Burling (1639–1697) and his wife Grace Norington (c.1651–1715) emigrated around 1680 to Flushing, Long Island. There they joined the newly established Flushing Meeting, a gathering noted for its defense of religious liberty and its role in the famous Flushing Remonstrance of 1657, one of the earliest declarations of freedom of conscience in the colonies.

From the beginning, the Burlings embodied the Quaker virtues of integrity, diligence, and quiet enterprise. Edward’s sons Edward (1674–1749) and William (1678–1743) represented two sides of the Quaker experience: one practical and mercantile, the other spiritual and reforming. Edward became one of New York’s early merchant shipowners, developing what became Burling Slip near present-day South Street Seaport and linking the family’s name permanently to the city’s maritime commerce. His brother William, meanwhile, emerged as a pioneering Quaker minister and early opponent of slavery, denouncing the practice decades before John Woolman and Anthony Benezet and calling Friends to live consistently with their testimony of equality.

By the mid-eighteenth century, the Burlings were firmly established in both Flushing and New York City, maintaining their Quaker identity while participating in the growing civic and economic life of the province. Their marriages connected them to other prominent Quaker families—the Lawrences, Titus, Rodmans, Embree, and Townsend families—creating an extended network of kinship that united Long Island, Westchester, and Manhattan.

The next generation, represented by Ebenezer Burling (1717–1758) and his son Thomas Burling (1746–1831), carried the family into the world of industry and craft. Ebenezer, a miller and landowner in Eastchester, combined Quaker simplicity with entrepreneurial skill, while his son Thomas rose to national prominence as one of early America’s finest cabinetmakers. Thomas Burling’s craftsmanship adorned the first presidential mansion in New York and furnished the homes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, linking Quaker artisanship to the civic ideals of the new Republic.

Across generations, the Burlings’ story traces the evolution of American Quakerism—from humble English immigrants to influential participants in the religious, economic, and artistic life of the colonies and early nation. Their legacy endures in the surviving records of the Flushing and New York Meetings, in the continuing presence of Burling Slip on Manhattan’s map, and in the moral and artistic contributions their family made to the formation of American society.

For information on the Burling family, see Jane Thompson-Stahr’s The Burling Books: Ancestors and Descendants of Edward and Grace Burling, Quakers, 2 Vol. (Gateway Books, Inc.: Baltimore. Maryland, 2001).