George Burnett Barton (9 December 1836 – 12 September 1901) was an Australian lawyer, journalist and historian.

Early life and education

Barton was born in Sydney, the second son of William Barton and Mary Louise Barton, and elder brother of Sir Edmund Barton. He was educated at

William Timothy Cape William Timothy Cape (25 October 1806 – 4 June 1863) was an early school master in Sydney, Australia; several of the Premiers of New South Wales attended his school. Cape was born at Walworth, Surrey, England, the son of William Cape, a Lon ...

's school and at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

. After a dispute with Professor John Woolley, he left for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, where he was admitted to the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

on 20 April 1857 and called to the Bar in 1860.

Career

Barton returned to Australia and became a journalist and was the first editor of the Sydney ''Punch''. From 1865 to 1868 he was reader in English literature at the University of Sydney; his introductory lecture, ''The Study of English Literature'', was published in 1866. Also in the same year appeared his ''Literature in New South Wales'' and ''Poets and Prose Writers of New South Wales'', the first volumes of a bibliographical and critical character to be published in Australia. This made him, according to H.M. Green, "the founder of Australian literary criticism." Barton went to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1868, and for about three years (1868-1871) was editor of the '' Otago Daily Times''. Barton was known as ''"long Barton"'' in New Zealand to distinguish him from ''"little Barton"'' or George Elliott Barton (unrelated) who was also a lawyer and (briefly) a Wellington MP.

Legal career

He practised for some time as a barrister and solicitor at

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, and in 1875 published ''A Digest of the Law and Practice of Resident Magistrates and District Courts''.He also edited the ''New Zealand Jurist''.

Journalism career

He returned to Australia in the 1880s and did much writing for the '' Sydney Evening News'' and the '' Sydney Morning Herald''. He was then commissioned by the government to write the ''History of New South Wales From the Records'', of which he completed only the first volume, published in 1889. The latter was to have run into thirteen volumes but after a dispute over payment, Barton resigned. His book ''The True Story of

Margaret Catchpole Margaret Catchpole (14 March 1762 – 13 May 1819) was a Suffolk servant girl, chronicler and deportee to Australia. Born in Suffolk, she worked as a servant in various houses before being convicted of stealing a horse and later escaping from Ip ...

'' was published posthumously in 1924. He later moved to Goulburn, where he was the editor of the short-lived protectionist newspaper '' The Werriwa Times and Goulburn District News'' in 1901.Ward, John M. "Barton, George Burnett (1836-1901)", in ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barton-george-burnett-2949/text/4279, accessed 8 May 2013 He died in Goulburn Hospital on 12 September 1901 of influenza.

Notes

References

*John M. Ward,
Barton, George Burnett (1836 - 1901)
, '' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 3, MUP, 1969, pp 113–115. *E. Morris Miller & Frederick T. Macartney (1956), ''Australian Literature'', Sydney, Angus and Robertson, p. 52.

External links

Works by George Burnett Barton
a
Project Gutenberg Australia
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, George Burnett 1836 births 1901 deaths Australian journalists Lawyers from Sydney New Zealand editors Australian editors New Zealand women editors Australian women editors New Zealand magazine editors Australian magazine editors 19th-century Australian historians 19th-century New Zealand lawyers 19th-century New Zealand writers 19th-century male writers 19th-century Australian lawyers Australian literary critics Deaths from influenza