BARTON, George Burnett (1836-1901)

miscellaneous writer

born in 1836, was the second son of William Barton of Sydney and elder brother of Sir Edmund Barton (q.v.). He was called to the bar in 1860, but became a journalist and was the first editor of Sydney Punch. From 1865 to 1868 he was reader in English literature at the university of Sydney; his introductory lecture, The Study of English Literature, was published in 1866. In the same year appeared his Literature in New South Wales and Poets and Prose Writers of New South Wales, the first volumes of a bibliographical and critical character to be published in Australia. Both books were very able pieces of work and are still consulted. Barton went to New Zealand a few years later, and for about two years was editor of the Otago Daily Times. He practised for some time as a barrister and solicitor at Dunedin, and in 1875 published A Digest of the Law and Practice of Resident Magistrates and District Courts. He returned to Australia and in the eighties did much writing for the Evening News and the Sydney Morning Herald. He was then commissioned by the government to write the History of New South Wales From the Records, of which he completed only the first volume, published in 1889. His The True Story of Margaret Catchpole was published posthumously in 1924. He died in September 1901.

P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography; Robert Richardson, The Bulletin, 21 September 1901.