David Judson Burr (October 16, 1820 – August 3, 1876) was an American politician and businessman. Burr, son of David J., and Arabella (Shedden) Burr, was born in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, October 16, 1820. He graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1839. After graduation, he studied law (partly in the

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

), and was engaged in successful practice for a few years, but finding it ill-suited to his temperament he abandoned the profession and became a merchant. Although disinclined to public life, he served for several years at the urgent desire of his fellow citizens, in the Common Council of Richmond and in the

Virginia State Legislature The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, ...

. On the organization of the Richmond

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...

he was elected President, and continued in that office until he positively declined a re-election. His energies were directed to the advancements of the commercial interests of his native State and city ; and to facilitate those interests he assumed, at the inception of the enterprise, the responsible and laborious duties of President of the Virginia Steamship Company, which he continued to discharge to the day of his death. He died in Richmond, August 3, 1876, from the effects of a paralytic stroke in 1873. He sympathized entirely with the South in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, and was one of the committee who surrendered Richmond to the U S. troops, April 3, 1865. He was married in New York, April 10, 1844, to a daughter of Dr. H. W. Denison of Georgetown, S. C., and had six children, four of whom survived him. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burr, David Judson 1820 births 1876 deaths Politicians from Richmond, Virginia Yale Law School alumni Members of the Virginia General Assembly Businesspeople from Richmond, Virginia Yale College alumni Burials at Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia) 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly