Author: BURTON, Charles
Biography:
BURTON, Charles (1793-1866: ODNB)
His father, Daniel Burton, was a calico manufacturer in Middleton, Lancashire; his mother’s first name was Esther. They were Methodists but Charles, the youngest of five sons and born on 18 Jan. 1793, was baptised in the Church of England at Manchester Cathedral (then known as St. Mary, St. Denys, and St. George) on 25 Jan. 1793. He was a Methodist preacher but later converted to the Church of England. He married Sarah Walker on 5 Aug. 1813; they had at least two children. He matriculated at the University of Glasgow in 1814 but migrated to St. John’s, Cambridge, where he was admitted on 11 Oct. 1815 (LLB 1822). He was ordained deacon in 1816 and priest in 1817, and earned his DCL at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1829. Burton was appointed to a curacy in Manchester and in 1819-20 he built the church of All Saints in Chorlton upon Medlock, Manchester; it was partly destroyed by fire in 1850. He was known both for his devoted attention to the needs of his parishioners and for his sermons which drew large congregations. Some of his many other publications—discourses, lectures, and sermons—reflect attempts to reconcile scientific discovery and palaeontology with the Biblical account of creation; these include Lectures on the World Before the Flood (1844) and Lectures on the Deluge (1845). He was visiting Durham when he caught typhus and died on 6 Sept. 1866; he was buried at All Saints on 11 Sept. 1866. Other sources credit him with writing Horae Poeticae (1815) but no trace of this book has been located. (ODNB 28 Aug. 2023; ACAD; CCEd 28 Aug. 2023; ancestry.co.uk 28 Aug. 2023) SR