- Richard Burn
Richard Burn (born 1709 in
Winton ,Westmorland ,England ; diedNovember 12 ,1785 in Orton) was an Englishlegal writer .Education and Career
Burn matriculated at
The Queen's College, Oxford in 1729. He was not awarded his B.A. until 1735, three years after he left the university to accept a position as schoolmaster atKirkby Stephen in Westmorland. Burn then entered theChurch of England , and in 1736 becamevicar of Orton in Westmorland. He was ajustice of the peace for the counties of Westmorland andCumberland , and devoted himself to the study of law. In 1762, after Burn had attained notoriety as a legal scholar, theUniversity of Oxford awarded him an honoraryLL.D . He was appointed chancellor of thediocese of Carlisle in 1765, an office which he held until his death.Writings
Burn's "Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer", first published in 1755, was for many years the standard authority on the law relating to justices of the peace. It has passed through some 30 editions, half of which appeared after Burn's death. His "Ecclesiastical Law" (1760), a work of much research, was the foundation upon which were built many modern commentaries on ecclesiastical law.
Burn's other publications include: "Digest of the Militia Laws" (1760), "History of the Poor Laws: with observations" (1764), and "A New Law Dictionary" (2 vols., 1792). The last-named work, published after the author's death by his son, was an update of
William Blackstone 's "Commentaries on the Laws of England ".Personal life
Burn was a noted
antiquarian . He collaborated with Joseph Nicolson to compile "The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland", published in 1777. The two-volume work relates information concerning the families, customs, architecture, and political and religious history of the two counties, and continues to be of great interest to family and local historians.Burn married first in 1736 Eleanor Nelson (d. 1739) and second in 1740 Anne Kitchen. He and his wife Anne had one son, John, born in 1744.
References
*B.C. Jones, "Introduction," in Joseph Nicolson and Richard Burn, "The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland" (West Yorkshire, England: EP Publishing, 1976), xiv-xxiii.
*1911
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