Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Burrel, John
BURREL or BUREL, JOHN (fl. 1590), Scotch poet, author of a poetical description of Queen Anne's entry into Edinburgh in 1590, entitled 'The Description of the Queenis Maiesties most honourable entry into the town of Edinburgh,' was a burgess of Edinburgh. Among the title-deeds of a small property at the foot of Todricks Wynd, Edinburgh, there was found a disposition of a house by ‘John Burrel, goldsmith, yane of the printers in his majesties cunzie house’ (king's mint), 1628. From the minuteness with which the poet describes the jewellery displayed on Queen Anne's entry, it appears that he had a special technical knowledge of such matters, and there is thus every reason to suppose him to have been identical with John Burrel of the king's mint. The poem, along with another by the same author, entitled ‘The Passage of the Pilgrims, divided into four parts,’ was published in Watson's ‘Collection of Scots Poems,’ and the former is also included in Sir Robert Sibbald's ‘Chronicle of Scottish Poetry.’ Neither of the poems possesses any literary merit.
[Irving's History of Scottish Poetry, 470, 490; Wilson's Memorials of Edinburgh, 2nd ed. 316.]