Borough (or Burrowe), William (1536–1599)

English navigator and author, brother of Stephen Borough. He accompanied Drake in the Cadiz expedition of 1587 as commander of the Lion but quarrelled with Drake when he questioned the wisdom of the attack on Lagos. He commanded the Bonavolia in the Spanish Armada fight in 1588.

Borough was an ordinary seaman on the Edward Bonaventure on the first English voyage to Russia in 1553. Afterwards he made many voyages to St Nicholas. He later transferred from the merchant adventurers to the service of the English crown. In 1570 Borough fought against pirates in the Gulf of Finland. He is author of Instructions for Discovery of Cathay Eastwards for Pet and Jackman (1580), and of A Discourse of the Variation of the Compas (1581). Some of his charts are now in the British Museum, London.