Rowland Burdon (died 1838)

Burdon's seat in County Durham: the Castle, Castle Eden

Rowland Burdon (c. 1757 17 September 1838)[1] was an English landowner and Tory politician from Castle Eden in County Durham.

He was elected at the 1790 general election as one of the two Members of Parliament (MPs) for County Durham,[2] and held the seat until the 1806 general election,[1] which he did not contest.[2]

The Castle Eden Vase (or Beaker) was found on his estate in about 1775, by a labourer working on a hedge.[3] The glass vase was a 6th-century Anglo-Saxon "claw beaker"[4] which had been buried beside the skull of human body.[5] It was presented to the British Museum in October 1947 by his great-great-granddaughter Mrs Sclater-Booth, in memory of her father Rowland Burdon (1857–1944).[3]

He is mentioned in “Sunderland Bridge”, a poem which appears as "anonymous" in The Bishoprick Garland of 1834[6] by Sir Cuthbert Sharp. (The poem also appears under the authorship of “M W of North Shields” in Rhymes of Northern Bards by John Bell (junior).[7]) The comments that are attached to the poem in The Bishoprick Garland state that he was responsible for the splendid bridge which linked the “Northsiders” of Sunderland to the rest of the Town, an achievement which was never fully appreciated, shown by the fact that the bridge had no official name and was called rather indifferently and uninterestedly, Sunderland Bridge, Wearmouth Bridge, or the Iron Bridge..

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 4)
  2. 2.0 2.1 Stooks Smith, Henry. (1973) [1844–1850]. Craig, F. W. S., ed. The Parliaments of England (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 98. ISBN 0-900178-13-2.
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Castle Eden Vase: Anglo-Saxon Glass For British Museum". The Times (London). 21 October 1947. p. 3, col C. Retrieved 29 January 2011. (subscription required)
  4. "Claw beaker". British Museum website. London. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  5. "Unearthing origins of an Castle Eden beaker". The Journal (Newcastle upon Tyne). 4 December 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  6. "The Bishoprick Garland page 48".
  7. Rhymes of Northern Bards by John Bell Jnr.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir Thomas Clavering, Bt
Sir John Eden, Bt
Member of Parliament for County Durham
17901800
With: Sir Ralph Milbanke
Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Parliament of Great Britain
Member of Parliament for County Durham
18011806
With: Sir Ralph Milbanke
Succeeded by
Sir Thomas Liddell
Sir Ralph Milbanke