1791. Burn, as he grew older, became a liberal in politics, and was willing to act with unitarians on the local committee of the Bible Society. He was one of the founders of the Birmingham Association of the Church Missionary Society, and its first secretary. It is greatly to his honour that in October 1825 he went out of his way to express regret (at the Birmingham low bailiffs' annual dinner) for his asperity against Priestley. Burn died at Birmingham 20 May 1837 and was followed to the grave by ministers of all persuasions. He married and left issue. He published:
- ‘The Fact; or instance of demoniacal possession improved,’ 1788, 8vo.
- ‘Letters to Dr. Priestley on the Infallibility of the Apostolical Testimony concerning the Person of Christ,’ 1790, 8vo, two editions, same year (replied to by Priestley in ‘Letters to the Rev. E. Burn,’ 1790, 8vo).
- ‘Letters to Dr. Priestley, in Vindication, &c.,’ 1790, 8vo (replied to by Priestley in ‘Familiar Letters, addressed to the Inhabitants of Birmingham,’ 1790, 8vo, letter xviii.)
- ‘A Reply to the Rev. Dr. Priestley's Appeal to the Public on the subject of the Riots at Birmingham,’ 1792 8vo (replied to by John Edwards, Priestley’s colleague, in ‘Letters to the British Nation,’ part iv. [1792], 8vo, and by Priestley in ‘Appeal,’ part ii, 1792, 8vo).
- ‘Pastoral Hints or the Importance of a Religious Education,’ 1801, 8vo.
- ‘Serious Hints &c. to the Clergy at this momentous crisis,’ Birmingham, 1798, 8vo (sermon on Is. i. 9, before the university of Oxford, 4 Feb. 1798); and other sermons and tracts, including a mission sermon in London. 1806.
[Anything; or, From Anywhere: otherwise Some Account of the Life of the Rev. Secretary Turnabout, the great high priest, Birm., [1792], a scurrilous piece, to which there is a Reply, 1794; Concise Hist. of Birmingham, 5th edition (18l7?). p. 54; Birmingham Journal, 29 Oct. 1825; Hist. and Description of Birmingham, 1830, p. 130; Rutt's Life of Priestley, 1832, ii. 58; Chr. Reformer, 1837. p. 581, 1847, pp. 170 seq.; Miscellaneous Writings of F. W. P. Greenwood, D.D., Boston U.S. 1846, 8vo, p. 44 seq. (Journal kept in England in 1820-1); Catalogue of Oxford Graduates, 1851; memorial tablet at St. Mary’s, Birmingham; information from Rev. J. S. Owen., Birmingham.]
BURN, JOHN (1744?–1802), lawyer, the son of Richard Burn, LL.D. [q. v.], author of the ‘Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer,’ was born about 1744 at Orton in Westmoreland, where his father was rector. Though bred to the law, he did not practise, but his legal knowledge stood him in good stead in his capacity of magistrate for the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland. The duties of this position he is said to have fulfilled with great intelligence and activity. He published no independent work of his own, but devoted himself to editing and continuing some of his father's legal writings. In 1792 he issued his continuation of Richard Burn’s ‘New Law Dictionary.’ The 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th editions (1788-1800) of the ‘Justice of the Peace’ were edited and continued by him; and to the 17th (1793) he added an appendix, containing an act respecting aliens, other acts having regard to excise, to militia, to the maintenance of the families of ballotted men, to the appointment of guardians of the poor, and to traitorous correspondence with the enemy during the war with France.
Burn died at Orton Hall in Westmoreland, 20 Jan. 1802, aged 58.
[Beauties of England and Wales, xv. pt. ii.; European Magazine, xli. 238; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
BURN, RICHARD, D.C.L. (1709–1785), legal writer and topographer, was born at Winton in Westmoreland in 1709, and educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1733. In 1736 he was elected, presented, and instituted to the vicarage of Orton in Westmoreland. He was justice of the peace for the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland, and he was appointed by Bishop Lyttelton, in 1765, chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle. He died at Orton on 12 Nov. 1785. He was succeeded in the chancellorship of Carlisle by his friend Paley.
His works are:
- ‘The Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer, upon a plan entirely new, and comprehending all the law to the present time,’ 2 vols. London 1755 8vo. The twenty-ninth edition, 6 vols., London, 1845, 8vo, greatly enlarged, was edited by T. Chitty, with the exception of the title ‘Poor,’ for which Commissioner Bere was responsible. From two thin octavos this work has increased, under the hands of various editors, to ‘six huge closely printed volumes, each containing about 1,200 pages.’ It is the most useful book ever published on the law relating to justices of the peace.
- ‘A Digest of the Militia Laws,’ London 1760, 8vo.
- ‘Ecclesiastical Law,’ 2 vols., London, 1760, 4to. The ninth edition with considerable additions by R. Phillimore, is in 4 vols., London, 1842, 8vo. Burn, by his diligent and accurate research, and by judgment in the selection and use of his materials, laid the foundation of a work which subsequent editors have reared to a
