East Riding Museums

He was born in Hull the eldest of 8 children to Thomas Burton (1840 - 1922). He spent a short while as a teacher for the Hull school board, but then went to Beverley to apprentice to his uncle Thomas Loft, a house painter and picture frame maker. While doing his apprenticeship he took art lessons from James Burras (an elderly local artist). He married and had three children and when he and his younger brother gained sole control of the business (which became Burton Brothers) he moved into 16 Woodlands in Beverley where he converted the attic into a studio, there he produced some very skillful etchings from his drawings of Beverley buildings that he had done while studying under James Burras.