William Burleigh, (father of John Holmes Burleigh), was a U.S. Representative in Congress from Maine. He was born in Northwood, Rockingham County, N.H., October 24, 1785; moved with his parents to Gilmanton, N.H., in 1788 when he attended the common schools and taught for several years. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1815 and began his practice in South Berwick, Maine.
Elected as an Adams-Clay Republican to the Eighteenth Congress and as an Adams candidate to the Nineteenth Congress, he was elected as an Adams candidate but did not serve in the Twentieth Congress.
He served from March 4, 1823, until his death in South Berwick on July 2, 1827 and was interred in Portland Street Cemetery.
While in Congress he was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury (Nineteenth Congress).