BOROUGH [BURROUGH, BURROWE, BORROWS], STEVEN (1525-1584), English navigator, was born at Northam in Devon shire on Sept. 25, 1525. In 1553 he took part in the expedition which was despatched from the Thames under Sir Hugh Wil loughby to look for a northern passage to Cathay and India. Borough's ship, being separated from the others by a storm, sailed into the White Sea, and, in the words of his epitaph, he "discovered Moscouia by the Northerne sea passage to St. Nicholas" (Arch angel). In a second expedition, made in the "Serchthrift" in 1556, he discovered Kara Strait, between Novaya Zemlya and Vaygach island. In 156o he was in charge of another expedition to Russia, and, probably in 1588, he also made a voyage to Spain. 1563 he was appointed chief pilot and one of the four masters of the queen's ships in the Medway. He died on July 12, 1584.
His younger brother, WILLIAM BOROUGH, born in 1536, also at Northam, journeyed to Russia in 1553, and subsequently made many voyages to St. Nicholas. Later he transferred his services from the merchant adventurers to the Crown. As commander of the "Lion" he accompanied Sir Francis Drake in his Cadiz expedi tion of 1587. He was the author of A Discourse of the Varia tion of the Compas, or Magneticall Needle (1581). Some of his charts are preserved in the British Museum and Hatfield. He died in