"Thomas, born in 1619, or, according to some authorities, 1623, came to America with his brothers, John and Robert in 1635, in the ship Angel Gabriel, of which their maternal uncle, Captain Andrews, was master; and, after suffering shipwreck on the coast of Maine, settled in Chebacco (Ipswich), in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, in 1636.
He served in the Pequot War in 1636 or 1637, and afterwards in King Philip's War in 1675. In 1664 he was Sergeant of the Ipswich Foot Company, in 1675 its Ensign, and in 1683 its Lieutenant.
He was Selectman in 1647, and Deputy to the General Court in 1683-4-5…
The Burnhams of Ipswich, Mass. and Norwich, Conn., are largely of his lineage, and many of his descendants have been identified with Colonial and State activities. His son, Thomas, was Lieutenant of the Ipswich Foot Company in 1702; his great-grandson, Eleazer, served in the French and Indian War of 1757; and his great-great-grandson, Asa, was a soldier in the American Revolution.
The latter's tombstone, erected by his son Eleazer in the cemetery at Aurora, Cayuga, N.Y., where he resided at the time of his death, bears the following inscriptions:
Major Asa Burnham, born 28 August, 1753, died 1 January, 1846.
In Memory of Lucy, wife of Asa Burnham, born 26 February, 1757, died 31 August, 1828."
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