# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Burton, James Ryder

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​BURTON, K.H. (Captain, 1824. f-p., 13;; h-p., 28.)
James Ryder Burton, born in 1795, is son of the late Bishop of Killala, a collateral descendant of Fras. Pierpont Burton, first Lord Conyngham; and cousin of the late Admiral Sir Robt. Otway, Bart., G.C.B.
This officer entered the Navy, 12 May, 1806, as a Volunteer, on board the Pearl, Lieut.-Commander Chas. Woodger, lying at Portsmouth, and, from Oct. following until Dec. 1812, served with Capt. Chas. Malcolm in the Narcissus and Rhin frigates, the last four years as Midshipman and Master’s Mate. While so attached we find him, in 1809, conveying to the West Indies the timely intelligence of the French fleet having left Brest, and assisting at the capture of the Saintes; next, on his return to the British Channel, contributing to the capture of four French privateers, carrying in the whole 58 guns and 310 men; and finally, while in active co-operation with the patriots on the north coast of Spain, receiving a desperate gun-shot wound in the left side in an attack on the town of Castro, 12 July, 1812, owing to which misfortune he was obliged to invalid and remain for several months at Plymouth Hospital. His promotion to the rank of Lieutenant taking place 15 Feb. 1813, he joined, in that capacity, on 22 July following, the Garland 22, Capt. Rich. Plummer Davies, with whom he continued to serve, off Lisbon and Cadiz, and in the Mediterranean and Adriatic, until paid off in Feb. 1816. He was then appointed to the Albion 74, Capt. John Coode, one of Lord Exmouth’s fleet at the subsequent bombardment of Algiers, where he volunteered the command of No. 191 gun-boat for the purpose of destroying the shipping inside the Mole; and, in Sept. 1817, he again invalided from the effects of his former wound. From 5 Aug. 1818, until discharged, 14 June, 1819, Mr. Burton next served, as Flag-Lieutenant to his relative Rear-Admiral Otway, in the Vengeance 74, on the Leith ​station, and on 27 Nov. in the latter year he was promoted by the Admiralty to the rank of Commander, as a reward for an invention for propelling ships of war during a calm. His last appointment was, 23 May, 1823, to the command of the Camelion brig, of 10 guns, in which, after an attendance of some time on George IV., he was despatched, early in 1824, to Algiers, in order to convey thence the British Consul, to whom the Dey had offered a serious indignity. On working out of the Bay, in company with the Naiad frigate, Capt. Burton fell in with an Algerine corvette, the Tripoli, of 18 guns and 100 men, and, after a close and most gallant action, under the very batteries of the place, boarded and carried her. His conspicuous conduct on the occasion was rewarded, immediately on his arrival in England, with a Post-commission, dated 23 Feb. 1824.
Capt. Burton was nominated a K.H. 1 Jan, 1837. A pension for his wound (from which the ball has never been extracted) of 91l. 5s., awarded him in 1818, has been of late increased to 150l. He married, 2 July, 1822, Anna Maria, youngest daughter of the late Lord Dunsany, widow of Philip Roche, Esq., and mother-in-law of Lords Trimlestown and Louth, by whom he has an only son, Francis Adolphus Plunkett Burton, now at the University of Oxford. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.