George William Burton

Burton was born in Sandwich, Kent, England, on 21 July 1818, the second son of Admiral George Guy Burton, Royal Navy, of Chatham. He was educated at the Rochester and Chatham Proprietary School. In 1836, Burton moved Upper Canada to Ingersoll, Oxford County, where he began the study of the law in the office of his paternal uncle, Edmund Burton. After his articles, he was called to the Bar in Easter Term, 1842, and practised law in Hamilton, where acquired a large practice.

He identified himself with the Reform Party in politics, and took an active part in various local elections. He was frequently asked to enter Parliament, but declined to concentrate on his practice. He formed various partnerships, but was always the guiding spirit of the firm, and became known from one end of the Province to the other as a sound and learned lawyer. His connexion with Mr. Charles A. Sadleir lasted for many years, and the firm of "Burton & Sadleir" was one of the best known in the western part of the Province.

On June 9, 1850, Mr. Burton married Miss Elizabeth Perkins, daughter of the late Dr. F. Perkins, of Kingston, Jamaica, and niece and adopted daughter of the late Colonel Charles Cranston Dixon, of the 90th Regiment.

He had many wealthy merchants and corporations for his clients, and was regarded as an adept in the law relating to railway companies. He was for many years Solicitor for the City of Hamilton; also for the Canada Life Assurance Company, of which he was a Director, having been elected to that position soon after his elevation to the bench. In 1856 he was nominated a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada, and when that body became elective by the profession at large, under the Ontario Act of 1871, he was elected to the position. In 1863 he was appointed Queen's Counsel.

Burton was appointed a Judge of the Court of Error and Appeal on May 30, 1874, moving to Toronto. Upon the elevation of Mr. Justice Strong to the Supreme Court at Ottawa, in October, 1875, Mr. Burton became the Senior Justice of the Court of Appeal. Burton was appointed Chief Justice of Ontario in 1897 and was knighted in 1898.

The former Township of Burton was named after him.