Robert, known to the learned by the name of Democritus junior, was a younger brother of the 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 1583 he was sent to Brazenose College in Oxford; and in 1590 he was elected student of Christ-church. In 1616 he had conferred upon him by the dean and canons of Christ-church, the vicarage of St Thomas, in the west suburb of Oxford, 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 afterwards 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 distinguished philosopher, an exact mathematician, and, what constitutes 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 strangely mixed together in his composition. This book was printed first in quarto, afterwards in folio, in 1624, 1632, 1638, and 1652, to the great emolument of the bookseller, who, as Mr Wood tells us, got an estate

John, D.D. a learned divine, was born in 1698, 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 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 he afterwards treated the same subject still more fully in four Latin sermons before the university, and published them with appendixes. 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 Magdalen 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, 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; and he afterwards published an account of the designs of the associates of 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 Worpledon 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, on the 11th of February 1771.