JOHN

See also:

• BRITTON
• JOHN BRITTON (1771–1857)

BRITTON (1771–1857)  , English antiquary, was born on the 7th of July 1771 at Kington-St-Michael, near Chippenham . His parents were in humble circumstances, and he was left an orphan at an early age . At sixteen he went to London and was apprenticed to a wine merchant . Prevented by ill-health from serving his full term, he found himself adrift in the world, without money or friends . In his fight with poverty he was put to strange shifts, becoming cellarman at a tavern and clerk to a lawyer, reciting and singing at a small theatre, and compiling a collection of common songs . After some slight successes as a writer, a Salisbury publisher commissioned him to compile an account of Wiltshire and, in conjunction with his friend Edward Wedlake Brayley, Britton produced The Beauties of Wiltshire (18oi; 2 vols., a third added in 1825), the first of the series The Beauties of England and Wales, nine volumes of which Britton and his friend wrote . Britton was the originator of a new class of literary works . " Before his time," says Digby Wyatt, popular topography was unknown." In 18o5 Britton published the first part of his Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain (9 vols., 1805-1814); and this was followed by Cathedral Antiquities of England (14 vols., 1814-1835) . In 1845 a Britton Club was formed, and a sum of £r000 was subscribed and given to Britton, who was subsequently granted a civil list pension by Disraeli, then chancellor of the exchequer . Britton was an earnest advocate of the preservation of national monuments, proposingin 1837 the formation of a society such as the modern Society for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments . Britton himself supervised the reparation of Waltham Cross and Stratford-on-Avon church . He died in London on the 1st of January 1857 .

Among other works with which Britton was associated either as author or editor are

Historical Account of Redcliffe Church, Bristol (1813); Illustrations of Fonthill Abbey (1823); Architectural Antiquities of Normandy, with illustrations by Pugin (1825—1827); Picturesque Antiquities of English Cities (1830); and History of the Palace and Houses of Parliament at Westminster (1834—1836), the joint work of Britton and Braylcy . He contributed much to the Gentleman's Magazine and other periodicals . His Autobiography was published in 185o . A Descriptive Account of his Literary Works was published by his assistant T . E . Jones .