John Burton (antiquary)
John Burton, M.D. (1710–1771) was an English
Early life
Burton was born at
The Sterne affair
Burton actively campaigned for the Tory interest in the elections of 1741, further incurring the hostility of Sterne, now Precentor of York Minster, and his nephew and political assistant, Laurence Sterne.[citation needed]
Burton's position was financially improved in 1743, when he inherited substantial estates on the deaths of his father and mother-in-law. Two years later he suffered a setback from which his reputation and his pocket never fully recovered. The occasion was the Jacobite rising of 1745. Burton travelled late in November to Lancashire, where Charles Edward Stuart's forces were marching south after their capture of Carlisle. His motives were unclear but his absence from York at this critical time strengthened the suspicion, fuelled by his Whig enemies, that he was going over to the Young Pretender. Burton was arrested on his return to York, and committed to York Castle on 30 November on a charge of treason. After three months' imprisonment he was summoned to London to be examined before the privy council, who finally released him on bail after examination in March 1747. He was tried at York assizes in July, but on account of the Act of Indemnity passed in June his prosecution was abandoned and he was discharged. He had been declared bankrupt and his furniture and books sold, leaving him with his wife's modest fortune.[2]
Recovery of reputation
Burton's political rehabilitation was marked by his appointment as commissioner for the land tax in 1750, 1765, and 1766, and by the offer in 1754 of the freedom of the city of York (which he did not accept). This is in spite of the fact that he was visited by two of his fellow prisoners from London,
Death
Burton died in the parish of
Printed works
His printed works are:
- Essay on Midwifery, 1761 and 1763.
- Monasticon Eboracense, vol. i. 1768 (the copy in the King's Library has the first eight pages of the intended second volume, entitled 'The Appendix, containing Charters, Grants, and other Original Writings referred to in the preceding volume, never published before,' York, N. Nickson, 1769).
- Two tracts on Yorkshire antiquities in Archæologia, 1768–1771.
References
- ^ "Burton, John (BRTN727J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b c "Burton, John (1697–1771)". Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ Historic Properties Walking Guide. York: York Conservation Trust. 2010.
- ^ A. H. Cash, Laurence Sterne: the Early and Middle Years (1975), pp. 180, 290
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Burton, John (1697-1771)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.