BURTON, JOHN, D.D., a learned divine, born in 1696, at Wembworth in Devonshire, of which parish his father was rector. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1725, being then pro-proctor and master of the schools, he spoke before the determining bachelor a Latin oration, entitled "Heli, or an Instance of a Magistrate's erring through unseasonable Lenity;" and he afterwards treated the same subject still more fully in four Latin sermons before the university, and published them with appendices. He also introduced into the schools Locke and other eminent modern philosophers, as suitable companions to Aristotle, and printed a double series of philosophical questions for the use of the younger students. When the settling of Georgia was in agitation, Dr Bray, Dr Stephen Hales, Dr Berriman, and other learned divines, entreated Mr Burton's pious assistance in that undertaking. This he readily gave, by preaching before the society in 1732, and publishing his sermon, with an appendix on the state of that colony. About the same time, on the death of Dr Edward Littleton, whose widow he subsequently married, he was presented by Eton College to the vicarage of Maple-Derham, in Oxfordshire. In 1760 he exchanged his vicarage of Maple-Derham for the rectory of Worplesdon in Surrey. He collected and published, in one volume, all his scattered pieces, under the title of Opuscula Miscellanea; and soon after died, on the 11th of February 1771.