Biography and portrait in ‘Australian Men of Mark’, Volume 1. Sydney, [?1889] , page 57 Personal papers in the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales: Sir William Westbrook Burton - correspondence 1832 - 1838 (MLMSS 834); Australian Dictionary of Biography, volume one Text from the book "The Presiding Officers of Parliament of New South Wales" Sydney 1995 William Burton was born on 31 January 1794 in Northamptonshire, England. He married twice, first to Margaret Smith in 1827 and secondly (date unknown) to Maria West. He had no children. Educated in England, Burton served in the Navy for several years before completing his legal studies. During his appointment to the Supreme Court at the Cape of Good Hope, he met Governor Bourke and accepted his offer of a position on the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Upon arriving in New South Wales in 1832, Burton was appalled by what he considered a lack of religious direction in the colony. Yet despite his religious fervour Burton came under attack for intolerant displays towards Catholics in his court room. He played an important role in the formation of early colonial law, although he tended to adhere closely to examples as set by English law. Burton provided two important judicial decisions in relation to the status of Aboriginals under English law, arguing through his rulings that if Aboriginals were to be subject to English law, then they should also be protected by it. Burton left New South Wales for India for a period of thirteen years, as a Judge of the Supreme Court in Madras, and although little is known of his life throughout that period, his first wife died suddenly and he remarried. Returning to Australia in 1857, he was appointed to the Legislative Council and the following year was appointed President. His dramatic resignation as both President and a Member of the House caused a great sensation. In an attempt to ease the Robertson Land Bill through the upper house, Premier Cowper attempted to appoint twenty one new members to the Legislative Council without consulting Burton. Although the Bill had successfully passed through the lower house it had been rejected by the upper house. Following Burton's resignation, John Robertson resigned his lower house seat and was nominated to the Legislative Council where he secured the passage of the Bill. Burton left Sydney in disgust in 1861 and returned to London where he died on 6 August 1888. Politics, Ideology and the New South Wales Legislative Council 1856-72 (PhD thesis, University of Sydney, 1962.)