William Burton

the eldest son of Ralph Burton Esq. was born ((b))((b)) Reg. Matric. Univ. Oxon. P. pag. 321. in Leycestershire, at Lyndley, I suppose, near to Bosworth in that County, 24 Aug. 1575, educated in the Grammar School at Sutton-colfield in Warwickshire, became either a Commoner or Gent. Com. of Brasn. Coll. in Mich. term, an. 1591, where by the benefit of a careful Tutor, he became tolerably well read in Logic and Philosophy. On the 20 of May 1593, he was admitted into the society of the Inner Temple, and in the month of June in the year following, he, as a member of Brasnose Coll. was admitted Bach. of Arts. Afterwards setling in the Temple, without compleating that degree by Determination, was made a Barrester: but his natural genie leading him to the studies of Heraldry, Genealogies, and Antiquities, he became excellent in those obscure and intricate matters, and, look upon him as a Gentleman, was accounted by all that knew him to be the best of his time for those studies, as it may appear by a book that he published, intit.

The description of Leycestershire, &c. Lond. 1622. fol. Soon after the Author did very much enlarge, and enrich’d, it with Roman, Saxon, and other Antiquities, as by his letter ((c))((c)) In bib. Cotton sub effig. Julii, c. 3. dated 9 June 1627, written to Sir Rob. Cotton that singular lover of venerable Antiquity, it appears. ’Tis now, as I have been informed, in the hands of Walt. Ch [•] twind of Ingestrey near to Stafford Esq who intends to publish it. I have seen ((d))((d)) In bib. Rad. Sheldon de Beoly Arm. nunc in Heteria Fecialium Londini. a common place book of English Antiquities made by our Will. Burton, which is a Manuscript in folio, composed mostly from Lelands several Volumes of his Itinerary, being the first of that nature that I have yet seen; but it being a copy, and not written with his own hand, but by an illiterate scribe, are innumerable faults therein. This ingenious person who is stiled by a learned ((e))((e)) Will. Burton in his Commentary on Antoninus his Itinerary, &c. Lond. 1658. fol. p. 214. Author of both his names The great ornament of his Country, died in his house at Fald in Staffordshire (after he had suffered much in the war time) on the sixth day of Apr. in sixteen hundred forty and five,1645. and was buried in the Parish Church belonging thereunto called Hanbury Church, leaving then behind him several collections of Arms and Monuments, of Genealogies and other matters of Antiquity, which he had gathered from divers Churches and Gentlemens houses, and a son named Cassibilian Burton the heir of his Vertues as well as of other fortunes, who was born on the 9 of Nov. 1609, but whether educated in this University I know not. His parts being different from those of his Father, he exercised them mostly in Poetry, and translated Martial into English, but whether extant I cannot tell you. In 1658 it then remained in Ms. which made a boon Companion ((f))((f)) Sir Aston Cockaine Bt. in his Choice Poems of several sorts, &c. Lond. 1658. oct. lib. 2. nu. 102. of his complain thus;

When will you do your self so great a right,

To let your English Martial view the light.

This Cass. Burton who had consumed the most, or better, part of the Estate which his Father had left him, died 28 Feb. 1681, having some years before, given most of, if not all, the aforesaid Collections of his Father before mention’d to the said W. Chetwind Esq to be used by him in writing The Antiquities of Staffordshire.