Pennsylvania militia officer.

Immigrated to Philadelphia (1747); later settled in Shippensburg as a merchant (1752). Road commissioner (1755). Militia officer in Seven Years’ War. Pennsylvania commissioner in Wyoming controversy (1763). Deputy protonotary of Lancaster County (1765).

Colonel of the Fourth Lancaster County battalion of the Pennsylvania militia; the companies he raised refused to serve in the severe winter of 1776-77, and Burd, whose military career had already been marred by association with the Loyalist Shippens, resigned and retired to his farm.

Son of Edward Burd of Ormiston, Scotland. Married Sarah Shippen, daughter of Edward Shippen and sister of Edward Shippen, Jr. in 1748; seven children