Henry William Burgin II ( 1830 - )

Born in Parramatta, NSW, the eldest of three children of Henry William Burgin and Mary (née Gowen). By 1853, H.W. Burgin II was established as an ‘ophthalmic optician’ in at 183 Church Street North. He also operated a business as a jeweller, watch and clockmaker from the same Church Street premises, before taking up the photography in about 1860. Burgin married Grace E. Curtis at the Parramatta Presbyterian Church on 6th February 1851, and the couple had nine children, before Grace’s death in 1868. Burgin then married Ann Sanday in 1870.

Burgin II was later joined in the watchmaking and photographic business by one of his sons, Henry William Burgin III (1852-1887).

Carte-de-visite studio portraits dating from this period are held by the Mitchell Library, as is his wet-plate negative collection of ‘Portraits taken at Parramatta’.