William Burls

William Burls (1763-1837) was a wealthy London merchant from Lothbury. Burls joined John Rippon’s congregation at Carter Lane, Southwark, on 1 March 1795, and became a deacon in 1802. He was a significant supporter of the BMS, serving as a trustee and the Society’s London agent and treasurer for many years, often allowing the missionaries to draw their bills on his own name and account. He personally collected over  £1000 for the Serampore Mission after the 1812 fire. He presided at the Birmingham meeting when the BMS was reorganized after Andrew Fuller’s death in 1815. Among the other Londoners who were BMS committee members at various times with Burls were Joseph Gutteridge (1752-1844) (deacon at Little Prescot Street, Goodman’s Fields), Benjamin Shaw, M.P., F. A. Cox of Hackney, Joseph Ivimey of Eagle Street, and William Newman of Stepney. Burls was also the first treasurer of the Baptist Union. See Horsleydown and Carter Lane Church Book, 1719–1808. MS., Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle, London, f. 67; “Calendar of Letters,” Baptist Quarterly 7 (1934-1935), 40; Ernest A. Payne, The Excellent Mr. Burls (London: Kingsgate Press, 1943).