Sir William Burrell (10 October 1732 – 20 January 1796) was an English antiquarian.

Biography

He was the third son of Peter Burrell of

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and E ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, and was born in Leadenhall Street on 10 October 1732. He was educated at

St. John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

, whence he graduated as LL.B in 1755, and LL.D in 1760, and in the latter year (3 November) was admitted as an advocate at

Doctors' Commons Doctors' Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a society of lawyers practising civil (as opposed to common) law in London, namely ecclesiastical and admiralty law. Like the Inns of Court of the common lawyers, the society had buildi ...

. He practised chiefly in the admiralty court, and there were in the possession of his grandson, Sir Walter Burrell, two volumes of his own manuscript reports of cases decided in that court between the years 1766 and 1774. They were edited by Mr. R. G. Marsden in 1885. Burrell was made chancellor of

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

in 1764, and held the same office in the

diocese of Rochester The Diocese of Rochester is a Church of England diocese in the English county of Kent and the Province of Canterbury. The cathedral church of the diocese is Rochester Cathedral in the former city of Rochester. The bishop's Latin episcopal signa ...

, continuing in both posts till his death. He was elected M.P. for Haslemere in 1768, and became a commissioner of excise in 1774, being re-elected for Haslemere in that year. He was also FRS and FSA, and a director of the

South Sea Company The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in Ja ...

. By his marriage in 1773 with his cousin Sophia Raymond, a noted poet and dramatist and daughter of Sir Charles Raymond, he acquired considerable wealth. His father-in-law was created a baronet in 1773 with reversion of the title to Burrell and his heirs, which allowed him to succeed Raymond as 2nd baronet in 1789. From an early period in life he was interested in antiquarian pursuits and ultimately concentrated his attention upon the history of the county of Sussex. Nearly every parish of Sussex was personally visited by him and its records inspected and partly copied. Drawings were made for him of churches, houses and sepulchral monuments, and he spared no labour in tracing the descent of the county families. He did not print any portion of his work, but bequeathed the entire collection to the British Museum, where it is now deposited among the Add. MSS. His interest in local history was not confined to England however, as he traveled

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

extensively in 1758. Tourism had scarcely touched Scotland before the middle of the 18th century, making Burrell's travel journals an important early source of local history and Scotland's social and economic conditions. Burrell was seized with paralysis in August 1787, and, though he partially recovered, found it necessary to resign his public appointments. He retired to Deepdene in Surrey with his wife Sophia, and there died on 20 January 1796. He was buried at

West Grinstead West Grinstead is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies just off the B2135 road four miles (6.3 km) northwest from Henfield. It is within the ancient division of the Rape of Bramber The wester ...

, Sussex, where a simple monument to his memory by Flaxman has been placed in the church. A secondary monument (also by Flaxman) was erected at

. Lady Burrell married secondly the clergyman William Clay. She died on the Isle of Wight 20 June 1802.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burrell, William English antiquarians Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge 1732 births 1796 deaths Members of Doctors' Commons Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain People from Beckenham People from Dorking