James Burton

James Burton (22 September 1786 – 22 February 1862) (formerly Haliburton and latterly Haliburton) was an early British Egyptologist, known for his pioneering exploration and mapping of the Valley of the Kings, during which he became the first individual of the modern age to enter KV5; his pioneering excavations at Karnak, during which he discovered the Karnak king list; and his excavations at Medinet Habu, during which he was part of the team that discovered TT391. Birth and family James was the fourth child and second son of property developer James Burton (formerly James Haliburton) and Elizabeth Westley (12 December 1761 – 14 January 1837), of Loughton, Essex, daughter of John and Mary Westley. The son was christened 'James Haliburton' but his father changed the family surname to Burton in 1794. The son James then changed his surname to Burton also, although he was the only member of the family to subsequently change his surname back to Haliburton (in 1838). He was an older brother of the architect Decimus Burton, the physician Henry Burton, and the gunpowder manufacturer William Ford Burton. On his father's side, his great-great grandparents were Rev. James Haliburton (1681–1756) and Margaret Eliott, daughter of Sir William Eliott, 2nd Baronet, and aunt of George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield. Decimus was descended from John Haliburton (1573–1627), from whom Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet could trace his descent on the maternal side. He was a cousin of the American judge and author Thomas Chandler Haliburton, of whom he was a close friend in London between 1838 and 1844, and thence of the lawyer and anthropologist Robert Grant Haliburton and Arthur Lawrence Haliburton, 1st Baron Haliburton. James was educated at Tonbridge School, Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1810: MA, 1815), and Lincoln's Inn.