When the Portuguese arrived in Sri Lanka in 1505 they brought soldiers and other supporting staff. Those who settled down got married to local women and a new ethnic group was born. Soon, the Dutch and the British followed. The descendants of the union between the colonisers and the locals came to be known as Burghers. The term Burgher was defined by Chief Justice of Ceylon, Sir Richard Ottley, in an authoritative pronouncement, when he gave evidence before the Commission which was appointed in connection with the establishment of a Legislative Council in Ceylon in 1883. He stated that, "The name Burgher belongs to the descendants of the Dutch, Portuguese and other Europeans born in Ceylon, and the right to distinction must not be decided by the Country from which their father or paternal ancestor came. So whatever the number of generations through which the family has passed in this Island, if the male ancestors were Dutch, Portuguese and or other Europeans, whoever may have been the female parents, if the parents were married, the offspring would be Burgher. If the parents were not married, the country of the mother would decide the question. If the right to be denominated Burgher be once lost by the legitimate father being a Cingalese or other Indian, it cannot be recovered." Who are the Dutch Burghers? ( The term "burgher" is of Dutch origin and is used in Sri Lanka to identify the ethnic group comprising the descendants of the Dutch who settled down in the island after the British took over the administration of its littoral ) The rise and fall of Burgher population in Sri Lanka? ( In a census carried out in 1946 there were 42,000 Ceylonese who classified themselves as Burghers or Eurasians and they were 0.6% of a population of 8.1 million. More than half of the 1946 Burghers, their children and their grandchildren are no longer in Sri Lanka. Forgotten Batticaloa Burghers ( Dutch Bar in Batticaloa is the area home to the Burghers. For over 500 years they have spent their time as masons, carpenters, barbers, and fishermen,living life to its fullest.) Dutch and French ancestors of Sri Lankan burgers ( Jean Francois Grenier was the French Commandant of the Star Fort in the south of Ceylon, in Matara. He had fought in the Seven Years War, reached the Corammandel Coast in the eighteenth century, took service under the Dutch V.O.C. and finally sailed away (on the outbreak of hostilities between the Dutch and the British) in the Bay of Bengal never to be seen or heard of again. Like Arthur Johnston, he too left one child behind, a son, Jean Francois Grenier, a Boekhouder in the Sea Customs at Jaffna.)New