Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Burdon, William
BURDON, WILLIAM (1764–1818), miscellaneous writer, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1764, was educated at the free grammar school there, proceeded to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1782, and graduated B.A. 1786, and M.A. 1788, when he was elected a fellow of his college. He resigned his fellowship eight years later, on declining to take holy orders. He married in 1798 a daughter of Lieutenant-general Dickson. He was a man of wealth, and owned coalmines at Hartford, near Morpeth, where he lived for a part of each year. He died at his London house in Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square, on 30 May 1818. His wife had died in 1806. He was a voluminous writer on political and literary subjects. His chief works are as follows: 1. ‘Examination of the Merits and Tendency of the Pursuits of Literature,’ 1799. 2. ‘A Vindication of Pope and Grattan from the Attacks of an anonymous Defamer,’ 1799. 3. ‘Various Thoughts on Politicks, Morality, and Literature,’ 1800. 4. ‘Materials for Thinking,’ 1803, 1812. 5. ‘The Life and Character of Buonaparte,’ 1804. 6. ‘Letters on the Affairs of Spain,’ 1809. He also wrote many pamphlets on the political questions of the hour, and translated in 1810, from the Spanish of Estrada, ‘A Constitution for the Spanish Nation,’ and an ‘Introduction to the History of the Revolution in Spain,’ besides circulating an ‘Examination of the Dispute between Spain and her Colonies.’ In ‘Cobbett and the Reformers impartially examined,’ 1813, he proves himself a very moderate reformer. Burdon was the editor of the ‘Memoirs of Count Boruwlaski,’ which appeared in 1820.
[Gent. Mag. 1818, pt. ii. 87; Watt's Bibl. Brit; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816.]