John Southerden Burn
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John Southerden Burn (3 July 1798 – 15 June 1870) was an English solicitor and antiquary.
Burn was the son of Captain John Southerden Burn of the Royal Marines and his wife Ann Ralph, daughter of Edward and Elizabeth Ralph. He was born in Chatham on 7 July 1798 and baptised at Week Street Independent Chapel, Maidstone, on 21 July.[1] He qualified as a solicitor in 1819, when he began to practise at 11 Staple Inn, Holborn in London. In 1820 he moved to 11 King's Bench Walk, Temple, and in 1822 to 27 King Street, Cheapside. In the following year he entered into a partnership with Samuel Woodgate Durrant, which lasted till 1828, when he removed to 25 Tokenhouse Yard.[2]
In 1831 Burn was appointed registrar of marriages at chapels prior to 1754. In 1836, he became secretary to the commission for inquiring into non-parochial registers. The Report presented by the Commissioners in 1838 states, "Our first step in the execution of the duty thus confided to us was to choose Mr. John Southerden Burn for our secretary". He retained this post until 1841. For this he was given an allowance of £700.[3] In that year, he moved to 1 Copthall Court, Throgmorton Street, and entered into a partnership with Stacey Grimaldi and Henry Edward Stables, which lasted until 1847, when Grimaldi retired. In 1854, a new partner, Charles Tayler Ware, joined the firm. In the following year, after Stables's death, Burn retired from practice, and lived at The Grove in Henley-on-Thames.[2] In 1857, Burn was himself appointed a member of the Commission which he had previously served as secretary, at the same time as George Graham, Registrar General from 1842 to 1880, and the barrister Horace Mann, who had compiled the Report on the Religious Census of 1851.[4]
Burn died on 15 June 1870 at The Grove at the age of 71 and was buried on 21 June at St Mary, Henley-on-Thames by the Rector, Greville Phillimore.[2]
