(1843-1924)
« return to database listWilliam "Willie" Burwell was the son of Robert Burwell and Margaret Anna Robertson.
William Robertson Burwell, known as Willie to his family, was born November 7, 1843 to parents Robert and Anna Burwell of Hillsborough, NC. He was the seventh of their 12 children, and was often paired with his younger brother James in schooling and mischief.
At the age of 18 he enlisted, along with his younger brother James, in the Confederate Army. He served as the Brigade Apothecary and Hospital Steward and regularly saw his brother John who was also in the same regiment. William was taken as a prisoner of war and held at the Old Capitol Prison.
After the war, he worked for a time in Petersburg, Virginia, leading the life of a bachelor. In an 1866 letter to his brother Eddie he wrote, “Do Eddie try & find me a sweetheart. I am getting so old that I am afraid I will die an old bachelor.” It would be ten more years before Willie would marry at the age of 33, when he took for his bride Miss Jenny McKenny of Petersburg in November 1876.
Willie and Jenny would make their home in Charlotte, where for many years he would operate a successful business as a druggist. The couple had no children. William Robertson Burwell died on March 6, 1924 at the age of 80. He had been bedridden for nearly three years due to complications from surgery.
His obituary described him as “a man marked by modesty of demeanor; keeping in the background; he was at the same time alert to every opportunity in civic and community welfare work and was quietly active on promotion of every good cause.”
William was called Willie.
William Roberson Burwell was born on November 7, 1843, in Burwell School. He died in 1924.
, Frances Armistead Burwell (1838-1856) , Mary Susan Burwell (1832-1859) and Virginia Isabella Burwell (1851-1867). and Virginia Bridges (1832-1859) .