Burn, Richard

, an eminent law-writer, was born at Winton in Westmoreland some time about the beginning of the last century; he was educated at Queen’s college, Oxford, which university conferred on him March 22. 1762, the honorary degree of LL. D. He died at Orton, of which place he had been vicar forty-nine years, Novembet 20, 1785. He was one of his majesty’s justices of the peace for the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, and was made by bishop Lyttelton chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle. In 1755, he first published his “Justice of Peace and Parish Officer, upon a plan entirely new, and comprehending all the law to the present time, 57 2 vols. 8vo, reprinted in the same form in 1756, and in the same year in folio, in 1757, 3 vols. 8vo, &c. The fourteenth edition was enlarged to 4 vols. 8vo, in which form it has passed, with gradual amendments and improvements, through various editions; the last of which is the twentyfirst. In 1760 he published his” Ecclesiastical Law,“2 vols. 4to, which afterwards was reprinted in 4 vols. 8vo. Both works were strongly recommended by Judge Blackstone, and both are extraordinary examples of unrivalled popularity and permanence. In 1764 he wrote” A History of the Poor Laws,“8vo, and in 1776” Observations on the Bill proposed in parliament for erecting County Workhouses.“He likewise published” The History and Antiquity of the two counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland, " in conjunction with Joseph Nicolson, esq. nephew to the bishop of Carlisle, 1771, 2 vols. 4to, in which work he has given the above brief notices of himself. ²