Dorothy and her family lived in Thame. Her husband was a wealthy brazier (brass worker), and they had six sons and three daughters.

One problem during Civil War and its aftermath was a shortage of coinage, and so town traders issued tokens to be used in place of coins. The Burgis family business likely benefited from the issuing of trade tokens, as one of their sons issued a trade token as early as 1653.

After her husband’s death, Dorothy issued a trade token with a lion in the middle, suggesting she may have become the innholder of the Lion Inn, which would have been unusual for a woman at the time.

There is a burial record for a widow ‘Burges’ on 27th October 1681 in St Mary’s Churchyard, and this was likely for Dorothy since spellings were very inconsistent then.