Charles Burton (judge)
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Charles Burton (1760–1847) was an English-born barrister and judge who spent most of his professional career in Ireland.
He was born at Aynho in Northamptonshire, second son of Francis Burton and Anna Singer.[1] The Burton family were originally from Leicestershire. His brother Edmund, a solicitor who practised in Daventry, had several children, including Sir William Westbrooke Burton (1794–1888), a judge and statesman in Australia, whose second wife was Charles' granddaughter Maria Alphonsine West. He entered Middle Temple, and subsequently Lincoln's Inn. Ball states that he was never called to the English Bar, although he practised as an attorney in the King's Bench.[2] He was befriended by the leading Irish barrister John Philpot Curran, who persuaded him that his future lay in Ireland. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1792 and took silk in 1806.
Career
He was a man of great erudition, who was described, no doubt with some exaggeration, as the most learned man ever to practice at the Irish Bar. He was also an exceptionally hard worker, and above all a superb advocate. He made his reputation with his speech for the defendant, which was described as "a masterpiece of eloquence", in the leading quo warranto case, R. v. Waller O'Grady, in 1816, where the Crown challenged the right of Standish O'Grady, 1st Viscount Guillamore, the Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer to appoint his younger son as a Court clerk.[1]
Thereafter his career advanced rapidly: he became Third Serjeant in 1817, Second Serjeant in 1818, and a judge of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland) in 1820. He was one of the last Englishmen to be elevated to the Irish Bench.[2] He enjoyed a high reputation as a judge, being described as calm, dignified and impartial.[3]