![William Burton, attributed to William Segar, Society of Antiquaries of London](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/William_Burton%2C_attributed_to_William_Segar%2C_Society_of_Antiquaries_of_London.jpg)
William Burton (24 August 1575 – 6 April 1645) was an English antiquarian, best known as the author of the ''Description of Leicester Shire'' (1622), the county's first published
county history
English county histories, in other words historical and topographical (or "Chorography, chorographical") works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was ...
.
Life
Burton was the son of Ralph Burton, and elder brother of
Robert Burton
Robert Burton (8 February 1577 – 25 January 1640) was an English author and fellow of Oxford University, who wrote the encyclopedic tome ''The Anatomy of Melancholy''.
Born in 1577 to a comfortably well-off family of the landed gentry, Burt ...
, born at
Lindley in
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
on 24 August 1575. At the age of nine he went to school at Nuneaton, and on 29 September 1591 entered Brasenose College, Oxford (B.A. 22 June 1594). He was admitted, on 20 May 1593, to the
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...
.
He was one of a group of antiquaries there, including
Sir John Ferne
Sir John Ferne (c. 1553 – 20 June 1609) was an English writer on heraldry, a genealogist, an eminent common lawyer and MP.
Life
John Ferne was the eldest son of William Ferne of Doncaster, Yorkshire and Temple Belwood, Lincolnshire. He succ ...
,
Thomas Gainsford
Thomas Gainsford (died 1624) was an author and news editor.
Gainsford belonged to the Surrey family of Gainsford. He inherited property in Lombard Street in the City of London. He and Edward Stene apparently purchased of the crown Alne manor, Warw ...
, and
Peter Manwood
Sir Peter Manwood (1571–1625) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1589 and 1621.
Biography
Manwood was the eldest son of Sir Roger Manwood of Hackington and his first wife Dorothy Theobald, d ...
.
On 20 May 1603 he was
called to the bar
The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
, but soon afterwards, owing to weak health, he retired to the village of
Falde in
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, where he owned an estate. Among his particular friends were
Sir Robert Cotton and
William Somner
William Somner (1598–1669) was an English antiquarian scholar, the author of the first dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon language.
Life
He was baptised in the church of St. Margaret, Canterbury, on 5 November 1598, but according to a statement of ...
. In his account of Fenny Drayton he speaks of his "old acquaintance"
Michael Drayton. When the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...
broke out, Burton sided with the royalists, and endured persecution. He died at Falde on 6 April 1645, and was buried in the parish church at
Hanbury.
[
]
Works
He wrote in 1596 an unpublished Latin comedy, ''De Amoribus Perinthii et Tyanthes''. In 1597 he published with Thomas Creede a translation of '' Cleitophon and Leucippe'' from the Greek of Achilles Tatius, with a dedication to the Earl of Southampton. Burton knew Spanish and Italian, and studied the emblem-writers, but his interest lay chiefly in heraldry and topography. In 1602 he issued a corrected copy, printed at Antwerp, of Christopher Saxton's map of the county of Leicester.[
His ]county history
English county histories, in other words historical and topographical (or "Chorography, chorographical") works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was ...
, the ''Description of Leicester Shire'', was begun by 1597. It appeared in print in 1622, dedicated to George Villiers, Marquess of Buckingham. Burton then spent years in making large additions and corrections for a new edition. In the summer of 1638 a copy of the intended second edition was sent to London for press. However the whole project was "overtaken by more momentous events – the outbreak of the Civil War – and had to be abandoned".[Daniel Williams (1975),]
William Burton's 1642 revised edition of the ''Description of Leicestershire''
, ''Transactions of the Leicester Archaeological and Historical Society'', 50, 30–36 It is not known what became of this manuscript.
Burton began work on a further revised version of the work in 1641. After Burton's death his son Cassibelan presented the materials for this final version to Walter Chetwynd
Walter Chetwynd FRS (1 May 1633 – 21 March 1693), of Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire was an English antiquary and politician.
Life
He was the only child of Walter Chetwynd (1598–1669), the eldest son of Walter Chetwynd (died 1638), who buil ...
, comprising a copy of the ''Description'' with large manuscript additions by the author, a folio manuscript with further additions and corrections, and a further secretary-hand copy with further additions, corrections and omissions. These are now in the Staffordshire Record Office.[Staffordshire Records Office, manuscripts D649/4/1 to 3]
Catalogue
. In 1798 Shaw discovered this copy at Ingestree
Ingestre is a village and civil parish in the Stafford district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 194. It is four miles to the north-east of the county town of Stafford.
Ing ...
, and it was utilised by John Nichols in the third and fourth volumes of his ''Leicestershire''. In 1777 there was published by subscription a folio edition which claimed to be enlarged and corrected; the information contained in the ''Description'' was incorporated in Nichols's ''Leicestershire''.[
]William Dugdale
Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.
Life
Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Coleshi ...
in his ''Autobiography'' acknowledges the assistance which he had received from Burton. In 1612 Thomas Purefoy of Barwell in Warwickshire bequeathed at his death to Burton the original manuscript of John Leland's ''Collectanea''. Anthony Wood says Burton needlessly expanded this work; but Thomas Hearne, in the preface to his edition of the ''Collectanea'', denies that. In 1631 Burton caused part of Leland's ''Itinerary'' to be transcribed, and in the following year he gave five quarto volumes of Leland's autograph manuscripts to the Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
.[
Among the manuscripts that he left were:][
* ''Antiquitates de Lindley'', which was later in the possession of ]Samuel Lysons
Samuel Lysons (1763 – June 1819) was an English antiquarian and engraver who, together with his elder brother Daniel Lysons (1762–1834), published several works on antiquarian topics. He was one of the first archaeologists to investigate ...
, who lent it to Nichols and is now in the British Library (Additional MS 6046);
* ''Antiquitates de Dadlington Manerio, com. Leic.'', which in Nichols's time belonged to Nicholas Hurst of Hinckley;
* ''Antiquitates de Falde'' (British Library Additional MS 31917)
* Collections towards a history of Thedingworth.
About 1735 Francis Peck
Francis Peck (1692–1743) was an English priest of the Church of England and antiquary, best known for his ''Desiderata Curiosa'' (1732–1735).
Life
He was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, the son of Robert, merchant, and baptised 4 Ma ...
announced his intention of writing Burton's life, but did not do so.[
]
Family
In 1607 Burton married Jane, daughter of Humfrey Adderley of Weddington, in Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
, by whom he had a son, Cassibelan Burton.[
]
References
External links
*
The description of Leicestershire
' (1777 edition), University of Leicester
, mottoeng = So that they may have life
, established =
, type = public research university
, endowment = £20.0 million
, budget = £326 million
, chancellor = David Willetts
, vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah
, head_labe ...
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, William
1575 births
1645 deaths
English antiquarians
16th-century antiquarians
17th-century antiquarians
16th-century English writers
17th-century English writers
16th-century male writers
17th-century English male writers
People from Lindley, Leicestershire