Thomas Joseph Workman Burgess was born on March 11, 1849, in Toronto, Ontario.

He was a physician, botanist, asylum superintendent, professor, and author. He attended Upper Canada College in Toronto (1862-1866) and then completed his medical studies at the University of Toronto (1870). He immediately joined the medical staff of the Asylum for the Insane in Toronto. In 1872, he accepted a position as surgeon to the North America Boundary Commission. Travelling widely throughout Canada in this capacity, he developed an interest in botany, a subject to which he would devote many articles and lectures. From 1875 to 1887 Burgess worked at the Asylum for the Insane in London, Ontario and later at the Asylum for the Insane in Hamilton. In 1890, he became the first medical superintendent of the Protestant Hospital for the Insane in Verdun, Quebec where he spent the next 33 years. He made sure that the patients were treated in the most humane manner and he set up an extensive program to keep them occupied (work, physical activity, and leisure pursuits). In 1899, he became a professor of psychiatry at McGill University. In 1885, he became a member of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1886, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1904 and 1905, he was president of the American Medico-Psychological Association.

In 1875, he married Jesse McPherson (1853–1929). He died on January 18, 1926, in Montreal, Quebec.