Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/505

Rh was made, in 1831, at the Pavilion theatre, as Wormwood in &ldquo;The Lottery Ticket,&rdquo; in which part he was much admired, and which he then acted there upward of fifty consecutive times. Liston was then the reigning favorite in London (Munden, who died in 1832, being in decadence), and next to Liston stood John Reeve, upon whom it is thought that the earlier style of Burton was in a measure founded. In 1832 Burton obtained a chance to show his talents at the Haymarket &mdash; Liston having temporarily withdrawn in a pet &mdash; and there he played Marall to Edmund Kean as Sir Giles Overreach, and Mrs. Glover as Meg in &ldquo;A New Way to Pay Old Debts,&rdquo; a circumstance which he always remembered, and often mentioned with pride and pleasure. His talents as a writer likewise displayed themselves at an early age. In May, 1833, a play from his pen, called &ldquo;Ellen Wareham,&rdquo; was first presented, and it is mentioned that this piece had the somewhat unusual fortune of being acted at five different theatres of London on the same evening. In 1834 he came to the United States, making his first appearance in this country on 3 Sept. at the Arch street theatre, Philadelphia, as Dr. Ollapod and Wormwood. In that city he remained for four years, acting in many old standard plays, and continually advancing in the public favor. On 31 Oct., 1837, he made his advent in New York at the National theatre in Leonard street, enacting Guy Goodluck in &ldquo;John Jones.&rdquo; The theatre was under the management of James W. Wallack, and this performance was given for the benefit of Samuel Woodworth, author of &ldquo;The Old Oaken Bucket.&rdquo; Burton began a star engagement there on 4 Feb., 1839, as Billy Lackaday in &ldquo;Sweethearts and Wives.&rdquo; It was not until 1848, however, that he finally settled in New York, as a manager. On 10 July of that year he opened his theatre in Chambers street (it had been Palmo's opera-house, built in 1842), and from that time for eight years he was the leader of the dramatic profession in the United States. His theatrical company included, first and last, John Brougham, William Rufus Blake, Henry Placide, John Lester Wallack, George Jordan, Humphrey Bland, George Barrett, T. B. Johnston, John Dyott, Charles Fisher, Lysander Thompson, George Holland, C. W. Clarke, W. H. Norton, Charles Mathews, Daniel E. Setchell, Mary Devlin (afterward the first wife of Edwin Booth), Mrs. Russell (afterward Mrs. Hoey), Lizzie Weston (afterward Mrs. A. H. Davenport, and finally Mrs. C. Mathews), Mrs. Hughes (afterward wife of John Brougham), Mrs. Skerrett, Mrs. Hough, Mrs. Rea, Miss Raymond, Miss Agnes Robertson (afterward wife of Dion Boucicault), Miss Malvina Pray (afterward Mrs. W. J. Florence), Fanny Wallack, Miss Chapman, and Mary Taylor. Burton revived &ldquo;Twelfth Night,&rdquo; and other Shakespearian comedies in a luxurious style, and produced a great variety of plays in the best possible manner. The story of Burton's Chambers street theatre, indeed, is one of the brightest passages in the chronicle of the American stage. The stock system was maintained, and every detail of the work was planned and accomplished with sedulous care. Here it was that Burton made brilliant and memorable hits as Sir Toby Belch, Capt. Cuttle (with John Brougham as Bunsby and as Bagstock), Job Thornbury, Micawber, Sam Weller, Bottom, Lord Duberly, Mr. Toodles (first given Oct. 2, 1848), Jeremiah Clip, Touchstone, Aminidab Sleek, Caliban, Autolycus, and Falstaff. Burton acted Falstaff in the &ldquo;Merry Wives of Windsor&rdquo;; never in &ldquo;Henry IV.&rdquo; This enumeration, although it gives but a few of the characters in which he was preëminently fine, and in which he became widely famous, may serve to indicate the direction and the range of his faculties. The Chambers street theatre was closed on 6 Sept., 1856, and the comedian then opened the Metropolitan, which afterward became Winter Garden; but he did not luxuriantly prosper in the new house, and in 1858 he gave it up and reverted to &ldquo;starring.&rdquo; His last appearance in New York was made, on 15 Oct., 1859, at Niblo's Garden, where, for his benefit, afternoon and night, he played Mr. Toodles, Mr. Sudden, Toby Tramp, and Micawber. His last performance on any stage occurred on 16 Dec., 1859, at Mechanics' Hall, Hamilton, Canada, where he acted Aminidab Sleek and Goodluck in &ldquo;The Serious Family&rdquo; and &ldquo;John Jones.&rdquo; The former part was acted by Burton 600 times, and Mr. Toodles was acted by him 640 times, in the course of his professional career. His affectionate and reverent biographer, William L. Keese, whose &ldquo;Life of Burton&rdquo; was published in New York in 1885, enumerates 184 characters with which the great comedian's name was prominently associated. Burton wrote several works, &ldquo;The Actor's Alloquy&rdquo; and &ldquo;Waggeries and Vagaries&rdquo; among the rest, edited the &ldquo;Literary Souvenir&rdquo; in 1838 and 1840, established &ldquo;The Gentleman's Magazine&rdquo; in New York in 1837, of which periodical for a short time in 1840 Edgar Allan Poe was assistant editor, and published a &ldquo;Cyclopædia of Wit and Humor&rdquo; (2 vols., New York, 1858). He collected a magnificent library, especially rich in Shakespearean literature. He was twice married, and left a widow and three daughters. He was buried in Greenwood cemetery.

BURTT, John, poet, b. in Riccarton, Ayrshire, Scotland, 26 May, 1789; d. in Salem, N. J., 24 March, 1866. He lost his mother when a child, and went to live with his grandmother. After attending school and becoming a good classical scholar, he was sent to learn the weaver's trade, but soon returned to his books. When sixteen years old he fell into the hands of a press-gang, and served five years in the Royal navy as a common sailor. He then escaped, opened a school at Kilmarnock, and in 1816 went to Glasgow, where he attended medical lectures at the university. He came to the United States in 1817, and in 1822 entered Princeton theological seminary, where he remained nearly a year. He then acted as a domestic missionary at Trenton and Philadelphia, was ordained by the presbytery of the latter place on 8 June, 1824, and became pastor of a church at Salem, N. J., where he remained till 1830. He became editor of the Philadelphia "Presbyterian" in 1831, and of the Cincinnati "Standard" in 1833,. and from 1835 till 1842 was pastor of the 5th church in the latter city. He supplied the pulpit of a church in Blackwoodtown, N. J., from 1842 till 1859, and in the latter year retired to Salem, N. J., where he remained until his death. Mr. Burtt began to write poetry while he was a sailor, and continued to do so throughout his life. A collection of his verses was published before he came to this country (Glasgow, 1817), and was re-published, with additions, imder the title " Horae Poetica?" (Bridgeton, N. J., 1819). See Wilson's "Poets and Poetry of Scotland " (New York, 1876).

BURY, William Coutts Keppel, Viscount, British official, b. in 1832. He is a son of the earl of Albemarle, who is one of the few survivors of the battle of Waterloo, was educated at Eton, and entered the Scots fusilier guards in 1849. He afterward went to India as aide-de-camp to Lord F. Fitz-Clarence, and in 1854 was nominated civil secretary and supei'intendent-general of Indian af-