town of Lincolnshire in England, seated on a hill near the river Trent. It is but a small place, and situated in W. Long. 0° 30'. N. Lat. 53° 40'.
town of Westmoreland in England, seat-
(Robert), known to the learned by the name of Democritus junior, was younger brother to William Burton who wrote "The antiquities of Leicestershire;" and born of an ancient family at Lindley, in that county, upon the 8th of February 1576. He was educated in grammatical learning in the free school of Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire; in the year 1593 was sent to Brazen-nose college in Oxford; and in 1599 was elected student of Christ-church. In 1616, he had the vicarage of St Thomas, in the west suburb of Oxford, conferred upon him by the dean and canons of Christ-church, to the parishioners of which, it is said, that he always gave the sacrament in wafers; and this, with the rectory of Segrave in Leicestershire, given him some time after by George lord Berkeley, he held to the day of his death, which happened in January 1639.
He was a man of general learning; a great philosopher; an exact mathematician; and (what makes the peculiarity of his character) a very curious calculator of nativities. He was extremely studious, and of a melancholy turn; yet an agreeable companion, and very humorous. The anatomy of melancholy, by Democritus junior, as he calls himself, shows, that these different qualities were mixed together in his composition. This book was printed first in 4to, afterwards in folio, in 1624, 1632, 1638, and 1652, to the great emolument of the bookbinder, who, as Mr Wood tells us, got an estate by it. Some circumstances attending his death occasioned strange suspicions. He died in his chamber at or very near the time which, it seems, he had some years before predicted from the calculation of his nativity; and this exactness made it whispered about, that for the glory of astrology, and rather than his calculation should fail, he became indeed a felo de se. This, however, was generally discredited; he was buried with due solemnity in the cathedral of Christ-church, and had a fair monument erected to his memory. He left behind him a very choice collection of books. He bequeathed many to the Bodleian library; and 100l. to Christ-church, the interest of which was to be laid out yearly in books for their library.
(John), D.D., a late worthy and learned divine, was born in 1606, at Wembworth, in Devonshire, his father being rector of that parish; and was educated at Corpus Christi college, Oxford. In 1725, being then pro-rector and master of the schools, he spoke a Latin oration before the determining bachelor, which is entitled "Heli; or, An instance of a magistrate's erring through unseasonable lenity?" written and published with a view to encourage the salutary exercise of academical discipline; and 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; from which Mr Johnson of Magdalene college, Cambridge, took the hint of his larger work of the same kind, which has gone through several editions.
When the settling of Georgia was in agitation, Dr Bray, justly revered for his institution of parochial libraries, Dr Stephen Hales, Dr Berriman, and other learned divines, intreated Mr Burton's pious affluence 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; and he afterwards published an account of the designs of the associates of the late Dr Bray, with an account of their proceedings.
About the same time, on the death of Dr Edward Littleton, he was presented by Eton college to the vicarage of Maple-Derham, in Oxfordshire. Here a melancholy scene, which too often appears in the mansions of the clergy, presented itself to his view; a widow, with three infant daughters, without a home, without a fortune: from his compassion arose love, the consequence of which was marriage; for Mrs Littleton was handsome, elegant, accomplished, ingenious, and had great sweetness of temper. In 1760, he exchanged his vicarage of Maple-Derham, for the rectory of Worpleydon in Surrey. In his advanced age, finding his eyes begin to fail him, he collected and published, in one volume, all his scattered pieces, under the title of Opuscula miscellanea; and soon after died, February 11th, 1771.
in the sea-language, a small tackle consisting of two single blocks, and may be made fast anywhere at pleasure, for hoisting small things in and out.