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- 1886 (Creation)
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1 item
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Biographical history
Richard Francis Burton was born on 19 March 1821, the eldest son of Captain Joseph Netterville Burton and his wife, Martha. He had a peripatetic childhood living on the continent as well as in England. His father wished for him to become a clergyman and therefore Burton was sent to Oxford in 1840 but managed to get himself 'rusticated' by attending a steeplechase against University rules.
Burton joined the Bombay Infantry of the East India Company in 1842. This was the start of his explorations and detailed recording of all that he saw. Burton was a very able linguist passing out top in the Company examinations but he was also interested in geography and ethnography including dialects and customs
Burton, as part of the Survey Company, made detailed topographical, ethnographic and linguistic notes resulting in the publication of his History of Sindh.
His life was full of travel and writing including travelling to Mecca and Medina in 1852, disguised as a Muslim, and an expedition to attempt to find the source of the Nile under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society of which he was a member.
He visited North America in 1860 before marrying Isabel in 1861. Burton went to Bioko (Fernando Po), West Africa to take up the position of Consul. In 1865 he was appointed British Consul in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where Isabel accompanied him, and then subsequently in Damascus.
In 1872, they moved to Trieste to work in the Consulate and from here he explored the mines at Midian. In 1886 he was made a Knight of the Order of St Michael and St George. He died on 20 October 1890.
Burton was a prolific writer and his travels provided him with material for many books. He was also a keen translator including translating The Arabian Nights stories and the poems of the Portugese poet, Cameons.
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"A Sketch of the Career of Richard F. Burton (Al-Haj Abdullah). Collected from “Men of Eminence”; from Sir Richard and Lady Burton's own works; from the press; from personal knowledge and various other reliable sources. By Alfred Bate Richards, Andrew Wilson and St Clair Baddeley. (London: Waterlow & Sons Ltd. 1886.) Black board covers with Richard F. Burton in gold handwriting diagonally across front cover.
Containing: inscription in Isabel Burton's handwriting on fly-leaf “In gratitude for kindness and courtesy in a moment of difficulty on the 20th October 1886.” and signed by both Isabel and Richard Burton.
On the next page is a copy of a letter from Robert Davis, ex-Station Master of Oxford Station 1883-1905, to Prof J. S. Margoliouth, New College, Oxford, saying that in October 1886 he found a gentleman in great pain seated on a bench near his office, and a lady anxiously attending him. He had no idea who they were until the A.B. Richards book arrived with the kind inscription. He was now asking what the Arabic inscription on the book meant. Prof. Margoliouth's reply (also attached) gives the translation (“the Pilgrim Abdullah”) and says that Mr Davis is to be congratulated on “having seen this eminent man”.
Pasted to the title page is a letter from Mr R. Davis (Clifton Villa, Ramsgate), to the Royal Asiatic Society, sending copies of the above letters and saying that as he is 82 years old he would like to leave the book and letters to the RAS for their members. “The recollection of that meeting has been a source of great pleasure to me ever since, especially during my retirement”. He also mentions an article in Pearson’s Weekly of 2 September 1916 called “The World's Greatest Love Romance” - the article is pasted on the end fly-leaf
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- English