Burn, Richard, 1709-1785.

Burn's New Law Dictionary : (English Law, 1792)

Richard Burn was both a legal writer and topographer. Born in Westmoreland, where he spent the greater part of his life, he was educated at Oxford. Burn went on to be instituted in a vicarage in Orton. He also served as a justice of the peace, and in 1765 was appointed chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle.

Burn's New Law Dictionary was generally considered a minor work of "little value." It was edited and published posthumously by his son John Burn, who added a preface and an engraved portrait of his father to begin the book; Marvin doubts that it was ever intended for publication. Burn did receive acclaim, however, for his 1760 work Ecclesiastical Law, which was published in at least nine subsequent editions. It was considered an important, complete treatise on ecclesiastical law and became the standard text for this subject. Burn also wrote several other works, and brought out the ninth, tenth, and eleventh editions of Blackstone's Commentaries.

Both volumes of Tarlton's copy of the dictionary contain extensive handwritten margin notes. However, since both volumes were trimmed severely at the head, tail, and outer margin when they were rebound, several of these notes are not fully legible.

John G. Marvin, Legal Bibliography, or a Thesaurus of American, English, Irish, and Scotch Law Books (Philadelphia: T. & J. W. Johnson, 1847).

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