A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Burn, John
BURN. (Retired Commander, 1833. f-p., 13; h-p., 41.)
John Burn was horn 22 Oct. 1772.
This officer entered the Navy, 12 Aug. 1793, as A.B., on board the Argo 44, Capt. Wm. Clark, on the North Sea station; and after serving for some time off St. Helena, successively accompanied the same officer, as Master’s Mate, into the Sampson 64, and Victorious 74. In the latter ship he assisted at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope in 1795; and on 9 Sept. 1796, off the coast of Sumatra, participated, in company with the Arrogant 74, in a long conflict of nearly four hours with six heavy French frigates under M. Sercey, which terminated in the separation of the combatants, after each had been much crippled, and the Victorious occasioned a loss of 17 men killed and 57, including her Captain, wounded. Mr. Burn, who passed his examination 5 Oct. 1799, and next, in April, 1800, joined the Suffolk 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier, became, on 6 July in the latter year, Acting-Lieutenant of the Arrogant 74, Capt. Edw. Oliver Osborn. For several months of 1802 (on 6 April in which year he was officially promoted) he appears to have been employed at Lintin during a negociation with the Chinese for the garrisoning of Macao. Invahding home in March, 1803, he afterwards served, from 23 March until 4 Aug. 1804, in the Princess Royal 98, Capt. Herbert Sawyer, attached to the fleet in the Channel; and on 23 July, 1807, he accepted an appointment in the Sea Fencibles at Fowey, which he retained until the reduction of the corps in 1810. He continued thenceforward unemployed, and, on 8 Aug. 1833, was invested with the rank he now holds.
Commander Burn married, in 1804, Sophia, daughter of Jas. Scott, Esq., merchant, of Pinang, in the East Indies, and by that lady has a large family, of whom one son, George, an M.D. (1840), is Surgeon of the America 50. Another son, John Scott, died Assistant-Surgeon (1841) of H.M.S. Endymion 44, in 1846,