Burton

Burton, JOHN HILL, historian, was born at Aberdeen on the 22d of August 1809. Having graduated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, he was articled to a lawyer, but soon came to the Edinburgh bar, where, however, he mainly devoted himself to study and letters. He was in 1854 appointed Secretary to the Prison Board of Scotland, and became one of the Prison Commissioners for Scotland. He held the old office of Historiographer Royal for Scotland, was LL.D. of Edinburgh University, and D.C.L. of Oxford. He died near Edinburgh, 10th August 1881. For a long series of years, from 1833 downwards, he was a contributor to the Westminster Review of articles on law, history, and political economy; to Blackwood's Magazine, the Scotsman, &c., he furnished many literary sketches; and he was a contributor to the first edition of this Encyclopædia. Among his original works may be mentioned Life of Hume (1846), Lives of Simon Lord Lovat and Duncan Forbes of Culloden (1847), Political and Social Economy (1849), Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland, A Manual of Scottish Law, A Treatise on the Law (Scottish) of Bankruptcy, History of Scotland from the Revolution to the Extinction of the Last Jacobite Insurrection (1853), The History of Scotland from Agricola's Invasion to the Revolution of 1688 (7 vols. 1867-70; new edition, enlarged and partly rewritten, 8 vols. 1873), The Book-Hunter (1862), The Scot Abroad (2 vols. 1864), The Cairngorm Mountains (1864). He edited vols. i. and ii. of the Register of Privy Council (Scotland) for 1545-78; and issued A History of the Reign of Queen Anne in 1880. He further edited the works of Bentham (in conjunction with Sir John Bowring), with an able introduction; and published a volume of Benthamiana. See The Book-Hunter, new edition (1882), with Memoir by his wife.