Born of Loyalist parents, Burwell became a deputy-surveyor in 1809 and was instructed to lay out the Talbot Road for settlement. He was granted 240 ha of land in Southwold Township where he settled in 1815. A close associate of Col. Thomas Talbot, Burwell carried out extensive surveys in southwestern Upper Canada which prepared the way for settlement. He served in the War of 1812 as lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Middlesex Militia, was a justice of the peace and for some 20 years represented this area in the legislative assembly. This community, named in his honour, was laid out by Burwell in 1830.