undertaken as a republication of the ‘Catalogue of the Lords of Session] prepared by Lord Hailes in 1767, with a continuation to the time nf its issue, became a collection of short biographies. Brunton was a frequent contributor to periodicals, and an advanced liberal. He established in 1834 a weekly Saturday newspaper called ‘The Patriot,' which was dropped upon his death (Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, November 1836). Brunton died on 2 June 1836, at Paris, whither he had gone in search of health.
[Edinburgh Almanac, 1831-7; Caledonian Mercury, ll June 1836; Gent. Mag. July 1836; Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, November 1836; Irving's Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, 1881.]
BRUNTON, Miss LOUISA. [See Craven.]
BRUNTON, MARY (1778–1818), novelist, was daughter of Colonel Thomas Balfour of Elwick. Her mother was the daughter of Colonel Ligonier. Mary Balfour was born in the island of Barra, Orkney, on 1 Nov. 1778. Her early education was irregular, but the girl learned music, French, and Italian. From her sixteenth to her twentieth year she managed her father’s household. About l79Sshe married the Rev. Alexander Brunton, and settled in the parsonage of Bolton, near Haddington. The young couple studied together philosophy and history. In 1803 they went to live in Edinburgh. In 1810 Mrs. Brunton’s first novel, ‘Self-Control,' was published; it was dedicated to Joanna Baillie, and the circumstance led to a pleasant and lifelong intercourse. The book had a marked success. A second novel, ‘Discipline,' appeared in December 1814. In a letter to her brother, while acknowledging that she loved ‘money dearly,’ she declares that her great purpose had been ‘to procure admission for the religion of a sound mind and of the Bible where it cannot find access in any other form.' The repairing of the Tron Church in 1815 gave Dr. Brunton and his wife an opportunity for a visit to London and to the south-west of England. She now projected a series of domestic tales, and made considerable progress with one called 'Emmeline.' But after giving birth to a stillborn son on 7 Dec., she was attacked by fever, and died 19 Dec. 1818. A life of Brunton, with selections from her correspondence, her two novels, the unfinished story of ‘Emmeline,' and some other literary remains, were published by her husband in 1819. ‘Self-Control’ and ‘Discipline’ were republished in Bentley’s Standard Novels in 1832, and in cheap editions in 1837 and 1852. A French translation of ‘ Self-Control ’ appeared in Paris in 1829.
Alexander Brunton, Mrs. Brunton’s biographer, was born at Edinburgh in 1772, and became minister of Bolton in 1797, of the New Greyfriars, Edinburgh, in 1803, and of the Tron Church in 1809. He was professor of oriental languages in the university of Edinburgh, and dizgei) Feb. 1854. His works are : ‘Sermons and Lecturwf Edinburgh, 1818; ‘Persian Grammar,’ Edinburgh, 1822.
[The Biographical Memoir mentioned above; Quéard's La Littérature Française Contemporaine, Paris, 1846, t. ll, 461 ; Blackwood's Magazine, v. 183.]
BRUNTON, WILLIAM (1777–1861), engineer and inventor, was eldest son of Robert Brunton, a watch and clock maker at Dalkeith, where he was born on 26 May 1777. He studied mechanics in his father’s shop and engineering under his grandfather, who was a colliery viewer in the neighbourhood. In 1790 he commenced work in the fitting shops of the New Lanark cotton mills belonging to David Dale and Sir Richard Arkwright; but after five years, being attracted by the fame of the great works at Soho, he migrated to the south, and obtained emgoyment in 1796 with Boulton and Watt. He remained at Soho until he was mode foreman and superintendent of the engine manufactory. Leaving Soho in 1818 he joined Mr. Jessop’s Butterley Works, and being deputed to represent his master in many important missions he made the acquaintance of John Rennie, Thomas Telford, and other eminent engineers. In 1815 he became a partner in and the mechanical manager of the Eagle Foundry, Birmingham, where he remained ten years, during which time he designed and executed a great variety of important works. From 1825 to 1835 he appears to have been practising in London as a civil engineer, but quitting the metropolis at the latter date he took a share in the Cwm Avon Tin Works, Glamorganshire, where be erected copper smelting furnaces and rolling mills. He became connected with the Maesteg Works in the same county, and with a brewery at Neath in 1838; here a total failure ensued, and the savings of his life were lost. After this he occasionally reappeared in his profession, but was never again fully embarked in business. He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, but the date of his admission has not been found. As a mechanical engineer his works were various and important; many of them were in the adaptation of original and ingenious modes of reducing and manufacturing metals, and the improvement of the machinery connected
