William Westbrooke Burton
Sir William Westbrooke Burton (1794–1888) was a British-born judge who later became President of the New South Wales Legislative Council in Australia. He is best known for presiding over the second trial of the Myall Creek massacre, in which seven settlers were prosecuted for murdering an Aboriginal child, a rare case in Australian history.
He was born in Daventry, England, the fifth son of Edmund Burton and Eliza Mather. After an early career in the Royal Navy, he turned to law, studying at the Inner Temple and being called to the bar in 1824. Burton held legal roles in Daventry, the Cape of Good Hope, and Sydney. In 1834 he went to Norfolk Island to oversee trials of convict leaders who had mutinied there; he reprieved many and worked to improve convict conditions, later writing about religion and education on the island.
Burton’s other writings included The Insolvent Law of New South Wales (1842). In 1844 he was knighted and served as a judge in Madras before returning to Sydney in 1857. He was sworn into the New South Wales Legislative Council in August 1857 and became its President in February 1858.
In May 1861, after a dispute over government bills, Burton and several colleagues resigned in protest rather than allow a government plan to swamp the council with new members. He retired to England and lived there for the rest of his life. He became blind in old age and, around age 90, dictated a letter congratulating a historian on his work. Burton died in London in 1888 at the age of 94.
Burton was married twice: first to Margaret Smith and then to his cousin Maria Alphonsine West.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 02:38 (CET).