James Burton (Egyptologist)

James Burton FGS (22 September 1786 – 22 February 1862) (formerly Haliburton and latterly Haliburton) was the British Egyptologist who mapped the Valley of the Kings; and was the first post-Renaissance person to enter KV5; and discovered the Karnak king list; and discovered TT391.

James Burton Junior was the second son of the eminent London property developer James Burton (who was formerly surnamed Haliburton) by Elizabeth Westley (12 December 1761 – 14 January 1837) of Loughton. He was christened 'James Haliburton' but his father changed the family surname to Burton in 1794.^[1] James Burton Junior then also changed his surname to Burton, but changed his surname back to Haliburton in 1838.^[2][3][4] He was an elder brother of the architect Decimus Burton; and of the physician Henry Burton.^[3][5][6]

He was a cousin and friend of the judge and author and MP Thomas Chandler Haliburton; ^[1] and of the anthropologist and barrister Robert Grant Haliburton; and of the civil-servant Arthur Lawrence Haliburton, 1st Baron Haliburton.^[7][8][3]

His great-great grandparents were The Rev. James Haliburton (1681 – 1756) and Margaret Eliott, who was the daughter of Sir William Eliott, 2nd Baronet and the aunt of George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield. He descended from John Haliburton (1573 – 1627), from whom Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet also was descended.^[9][10][11]

James Burton Junior was educated at Tonbridge School; and at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1810: MA, 1815)^[12] at which he read mathematics under George Frederick Tavel;^[13] and at Middle Temple^[13] and Lincoln's Inn.^[2][14] He between 1815 and 1822 worked for the architect Sir John Soane and Charles Humphreys, with whom he met the Egyptologists Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, and Edward William Lane, and Sir William Gell.^[4] His cadre of Egyptologists also included Robert Hay and Joseph Bonomi the Younger.^[1]

He lived in Egypt from 1820 to 1834,^[1] where he enjoyed marsala, rum, brandy, opium, and the company of slave girls.^[1] He was in the team that discovered TT391 during 1820.^[15] In 1822, he was invited by Pasha Mohammed Ali to work as a mineralogist in the Geological Survey of Egypt, that he left in 1824 to investigate the ancient monuments of Egypt. In 1825, he travelled south on the Nile to Abu Simbel. He spent months in Thebes, where he excavated at Medinet Habu, Karnak and in the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, including, in 1824, the first attempt to excavate KV20 which cleared the tomb's first chamber. In 1825, he mapped KV21.^[16] He explored also KV26, KV9, KV19,^[17] and KV2.^[18] In 1825, he became the first person to enter KV5, but only explored the first few chambers.^[3] In 1825, he discovered the Karnak king list.^[19] Between 1825 and 1828 Burton published Excerpta Hieroglyphica, a volume of hieroglyphic inscriptions.^[12]

He between 1825 and 1834 stayed in the Egyptian desert for nine years until his father discontinued his funds and he was compelled to return to London in 1834.^[1] None of his explorations from this period have been published,^[2][4][3] but the papers of his companion George Greenough, which are kept at University College, London, provide information about Burton's life:^[20] "Besides his black slaves before mentioned he has a young Greek purchased by a Scotch renegade by the name of Osman", wrote Sheffield, another Egyptologist. At a birthday celebration for Charles Humphrey, Burton drank 'till he fell off his chair'. Burton had a superb French bed with a long looking glass' and spent most his time in 'coffee, smoking and drinking spiritous mixtures'^[20] in 'his divan - his harem'.^[20] Burton contracted ophthalmia, lumbago, liver problems, and a scorbutic infection, and consumed opium 'to so great a degree' that his friends feared his 'speedy madness or death'.^[20] One of his friends wrote of him, 'He is reduced to a mere skeleton'.^[20] He returned to England on Christmas Day 1835 with animals, including a giraffe that died at Calais,^[13] and servants, including Andreana who was a Greek translator of Turkish^[13] whom he married, for which he was disowned by his father, after which^[2][4][3] he impressed the daughter of his cousin Thomas Chandler Haliburton, who wrote, in 1839, "Mr James I admire very much. He is one of the most well-bred persons I saw &... decidedly the flower of the flock",^[20] and who in 1839 asked Burton to check the proofs of his work Letter Bag of the Great Western, and in 1840 those of the third series of The Clockmaker.^[21] They travelled together to Scotland to investigate their ancestry, and intended to tour Canada and the United States of America together.^[21]

Subsequent to his death, James Burton Junior's notebooks, of drawings and plans of Egyptian antiquities and monuments, were given to the British Museum by his brother Decimus Burton.^[3] Most of his collection of Egyptian antiquities were auctioned at Sotheby's in 1836 to repay his debts, except a mummy and coffin which is now in the Liverpool Museum.^[2][4][3] He was a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.^[2][6] James Burton Junior is buried near the centre of Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh, where his epitaph reads "a zealous investigator in Egypt of its language and antiquities".^[4]

Media related to James Burton (Egyptologist) at Wikimedia Commons