Descendants of Walter Burton

         Walter Burton appeared in the Windsor area at the 1838 Hants/Kings county census with a household of nine including himself as head of the household ². He likely came to the Windsor area post 1817 as a likely daughter Mary (Mrs. Hingley) was born at Latties Brook that year ⁷. Either Walter Sr. or his son Walter Jr. would have been the Walter Burton who with a John Burton was granted land in 1829 adjoining Latties Brook near Maitland in north eastern Hants County. These two land grants gave rise to the naming of the locality and the subsequent railway station there as "Burtons". The railway station and the rail line have long gone but the place name of "Burtons" still appears on the current topographical map. Art Burton of Nova Scotia, a great-great grandson of Walter Burton Jr., jokingly styles himself the Burton of Burtons and still owns part of the original Walter Burton land grant ³. Walter Sr.'s grandson Walter Harvie of Australia, who left Nova Scotia in 1859 when aged 15 years, wrote  he lived with his uncle William Burton in this area for two years, which would have been from about 1856-58. He named two other of his Burton uncles as Alexander and Walter and said the farms of William and Walter in this area adjoined ⁵.
         In 1853 doubts arose as to whether St. John's Presbyterian Congregation of Windsor was correctly constituted. Such gave rise to a new deed of constitution dated 29 Sep 1853. Parties to the deed included Walter and William Burton of Windsor. It appointed William one of the five trustees to manage the church's civil affairs ⁴. The name of Walter Burton Sr.'s son James and that of a Sarah Burton, who was likely the wife of another son Alexander, appeared on the Communion Roll of the St. Croix Presbyterian Church in 1873 ⁴. In a letter dated 1 Sep 1862 from James Harvie in Newport to his nephew Walter Harvie in Australia, the writer mentioned he had seen his uncle James Burton the previous sabeth at the church meeting in Newport and often met with his grandfather Walter Burton ¹.
          It seems the Burtons' may have come to Nova Scotia in the early 1780's, most probably as political refugees from the east coast of America after having having either fought for or supported the losing British side at the Revolution. This group of emigrants are known as the United Empire Loyalists, and at the time of compilation under Canadian law direct descendants of an original Loyalist are regardless of gender entitled to place the letters UE after their names. It is the only hereditary title in Canada !  In Nova Scotia the Burton family legend has it that three Burton boys came to Nova Scotia, of whom one settled in Hants and one was in Shelburne County ³. Whilst no proof is available, it is at least possible Walter Burton of Windsor could have been a son of a William Burton who arrived in 1783 at Port Roseway (subsequently renamed Shelburne), and subsequently settled at Chester in nearby Lunenburg County. Port Roseway was chosen for the settlement of a group of Loyalists being evacuated in 1783 from New York before it fell into American hands, primarily for the access its harbour would give the evacuees to the European  trade and the easy access to the lumber trade on the River St John and Bay of Fundy. An association was formed to organise those wishing to be evacuated to Port Roseway. With the anticipated evacuation of New York and Boston many families who had remained loyal to Britain signed up, and by late March 1783 there were 400 families comprising four to five thousand people waiting for transport to Port Roseway ¹⁴.  The minutes of the Port Roseway Association record as associate William Burton, a pump maker by occupation, subsequently transported to Port Roseway together with a woman, three children and two servants ¹².  It seems at least one of those children may have been named John, as there is a record of John Burton, widower, marrying on 12 Nov 1829 an Elizabeth Gorkum (or Corkum) in the Dutch Reformed Church in Chester, Lunenburg Co., Nova Scotia ¹³. Perhaps In addition to this John and Walter Burton of Windsor, another possible son of William Burton the pump maker was a William Burton who had a 1882 Hants Co. probate and thus a will but whose grave site is not known ¹¹.  If the age of 87 years transcribed from her cemetery headstone inscription is correct, his wife was perhaps the Mary Burton who died on 28 Sept. 1868. whose headstone in the Latties Brook cemetery bears the inscription that she was the wife of William Burton  ¹⁰
            However the alternative, and location wise much more likely in the view of this compiler to have been the parents of Walter Burton of Windsor, is an Ambrose Burton (1740-1832) and wife Mary (1754-1824) who are buried in St. Peter's Cemetery (Anglican Church) in Upper Kennetcook, Hants Co., approximately seven kilometres from the locality named Burtons. Their tombstones in this cemetery carry unusual and perhaps unique epitaphs ¹³. As mentioned Walter Harvie of Australia lived  for 2 years in the 1850s in this area with his uncle William Burton. It is perhaps more than coincidence that Walter Harvie named the first born of his twelve children William Ambrose. Ambrose is not a name that occurs in the well documented early Harvie/Harvey Nova Scotian genealogy. Also his uncle Walter Burton Jr. bestowed John Ambrose as given names to his second born son. If this thinking is correct then William Burton who died in 1882, for whom there is a Hants County probate, could still have been a brother of Walter Burton of Windsor, the only difference being that the two were sons of Ambrose Burton instead of William the pump maker. It would appear a brother of Ambrose may well have been a John Burton who was listed as surveyor of highways in this area in 1815 and who was likely the John Burton listed in the 1817 census as the head of a household comprising three males, of whom one who was presumably John himself was aged over 50 years. ¹⁶.
             This scenario would still accord with the Nova Scotian Burton family legend of three brothers having come to Nova Scotia of whom one settled in Shelburne & one in Hants - the Shelburne one being William the pump maker and their actually having perhaps been two - Ambrose and John who settled in Hants. There is no evidence to link the Burtons' identified in this complilation to the Burtons' of Cape Breton whose links appear to have been to Newfoundland and earlier to Dorset in England, or the large Burton family of Hantsport near Windsor in Hants County who it appears were of the Baptist faith ¹⁵.

Children of Walter Burton were:
1.   Walter Burton ⁵ b. ca. 1811 ³
2.   John Burton
3.   James Burton ¹ b. ca. 1816
4.   Mary Burton (Mrs. Hingley) ⁸ , b. 28 Sep. 1817 at Latties Brook ^{7, 2}
5.   Margaret Burton
6.   Jane Ann Burton
7.   William Burton
8.   Alexander Burton

To obtain or provide further information on this Burton family