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James Burton (Egyptologist)

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For other people named James Burton, see James Burton (disambiguation).

James Burton
FGS
Born
James Haliburton

22 September 1786
London, England
Died22 February 1862
Resting placeDean Cemetery, Edinburgh
NationalityBritish
EducationTonbridge School
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge, Lincoln's Inn
Occupation(s)Egyptologist, Explorer.
Parents
Relatives
Trinity College, Cambridge
John Haliburton's grave, Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh
The inscription on James Haliburton's grave, Dean Cemetery

James Burton FGS (22 September 1786 – 22 February 1862) (formerly Haliburton and latterly Haliburton) was the British Egyptologist who mapped the Valley of the Kings; and was the first modern person to enter KV5; and discovered the Karnak king list; and discovered TT391.

Birth and family

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James was the second son of property developer James Burton (formerly James Haliburton) and Elizabeth Westley (12 December 1761 – 14 January 1837) of Loughton, Essex. He was christened 'James Haliburton' but his father changed the family surname to Burton in 1794.[1] The son James then also changed his surname to Burton, but changed his surname back to Haliburton in 1838.[2][3][4] He was an elder brother of the architect Decimus Burton, and of the physician Henry Burton, and of the gunpowder manufacturer William Ford Burton.[3][5][6]

His paternal great-great grandparents were Rev. James Haliburton (1681 – 1756) and Margaret Eliott, who was the daughter of Sir William Eliott, 2nd Baronet, and the aunt of George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield. He also descended from John Haliburton (1573 – 1627), from whom Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was maternally descended. He was a cousin of the judge and author Thomas Chandler Haliburton, of whom he was a friend in London between 1838 and 1844,[1] and of the anthropologist Robert Grant Haliburton and the civil-servant Arthur Lawrence Haliburton, 1st Baron Haliburton.[7][8][3]

James Junior was educated at Tonbridge School, Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1810: MA, 1815),[9] and Lincoln's Inn.[2][10]

Egyptology

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Between 1815 and 1822, Burton worked for the architect Sir John Soane and the sames' secretary, Charles Humphreys, with whom in Egypt he met Egyptologists Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, Edward William Lane, and Sir William Gell.[4] His cadre of Egyptologists also included Robert Hay and Joseph Bonomi the Younger.[1] Burton lived in Egypt from 1820 to 1834,[1] where he enjoyed marsala, rum, brandy, opium, and the company of slave girls.[1] He was in the team that discovered TT391 during 1820.[11] In 1822, despite having no mineralogical knowledge, he was invited by Pasha Mohammed Ali to work as a mineralogist in the Geological Survey of Egypt. He left in 1824 and started to investigate the ancient monuments of Egypt. In 1825, he travelled south on the Nile to Abu Simbel. He spent months in Thebes, where he excavated at Medinet Habu, Karnak and in the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, including, in 1824, the first attempt to excavate KV20 which cleared the tomb's first chamber. In 1825, he mapped KV21.[12] He explored also KV26, KV9, KV19,[13] and KV2.[14] In 1825, he became the first person to enter KV5, but only explored the first few chambers.[3] In 1825, he discovered the Karnak king list.[15] Between 1825 and 1828 Burton published Excerpta Hieroglyphica, a volume of hieroglyphic inscriptions.[9]

Burton between 1825 and 1834 disappeared into the Egyptian desert for nine years until his father stopped his allowance and he was compelled to return to London in 1834.[1] None of his explorations from this period have been published,[2][4][3] but the papers of his companion George Greenough, which are kept at University College, London, provide information about Burton's life:[16] "Besides his black slaves before mentioned he has a young Greek purchased by a Scotch renegade by the name of Osman", wrote Sheffield, another Egyptologist. At a birthday celebration for Charles Humphrey, Burton drank 'till he fell off his chair'. Burton had a superb French bed with a long looking glass' and spent most his time in 'coffee, smoking and drinking spiritous mixtures'[16] in 'his divan - his harem'.[16] Burton contracted ophthalmia, lumbago, liver problems, and a scorbutic infection, and consumed opium 'to so great a degree' that his friends feared his 'speedy madness or death'.[16] One of his friends wrote of him, 'He is reduced to a mere skeleton'.[16]

James returned to England on Christmas Day 1835 with animals and servants including Andreana, a Greek slave whom he had purchased in Egypt and subsequently married, as a consequence of which he was disowned by his family, after which[2][4][3] he impressed the daughter of his cousin Thomas Chandler Haliburton, who wrote, in 1839, "Mr James I admire very much. He is one of the most well-bred persons I saw &... decidedly the flower of the flock",[16] and who in 1839 asked Burton to check the proofs of his work Letter Bag of the Great Western, and those of the third series of The Clockmaker in 1840.[17] They travelled together to Scotland to investigate their common ancestry, and intended to tour Canada and the United States of America together.[17]

Auctioning of property

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Subsequent to his death, James Burton Junior's notebooks, of drawings of Egyptian antiquities and plans of monuments, were given to the British Museum by his brother Decimus Burton.[3] Most of his collection of Egyptian antiquities were auctioned at Sotheby's in 1836 to repay his debts, except a mummy and coffin which is now in the Liverpool Museum.[2][4][3] He was a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.[2][6] James Burton Junior is buried near the centre of Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh, where his epitaph reads "a zealous investigator in Egypt of its language and antiquities".[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Davies 2005, p. 71.
  2. ^ a b c d e f J. Manwaring Baines F.S.A., Burton’s St. Leonards, Hastings Museum, 1956.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cooke 2004.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Egypt: The Egyptologists". www.touregypt.net. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  5. ^ "The ancestral pedigree of Decimus Burton, F.R.S." The Weald of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. Archived from the original on 15 May 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  6. ^ a b "The ancestral pedigree of James Haliburton (b.1788)". The Weald of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  7. ^ Davies 2005, pp. 71–73.
  8. ^ Burton, James (1783–1811). "The Diary of James Burton". The National Archives. Retrieved 18 June 2018 – via Hastings Museum and Art Gallery.
  9. ^ a b "James Haliburton, formerly Burton (1788 - 1862)". Victorian Web. 10 December 2002.
  10. ^ "Haliburton (sometime Burton), James (HLBN805J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  11. ^ "Tomb of Karabasken". Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  12. ^ Reeves 1990, p. 13.
  13. ^ "KV 19 (Mentuherkhepeshef)". Theban Mapping Project. Archived from the original on 13 November 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  14. ^ "KV 2 (Rameses IV)". Theban Mapping Project. Archived from the original on 6 May 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  15. ^ Haliburton 1825, Plate Ia.
  16. ^ a b c d e f Davies 2005, p. 72.
  17. ^ a b Davies 2005, p. 73.

Sources

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Media related to James Burton (Egyptologist) at Wikimedia Commons

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