He was born on April 18, 1870 in Somersworth, New Hampshire to George William Burleigh, Sr. (1830-1878) and Hannah Louise Bryant. He attended at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He graduated from Princeton University in 1892. He attended New York Law School and then married Isis Yturbide Stockton (1868-1945). In 1913 he was on the American Peace Centenary Committee. By 1914 he was a director of the Lackawanna Steel Company. He replaced Colonel Edward Coleman Delafield to commanded the Ninth Coast Defense Command of the New York Guard during World War I. His widow died in 1943.