John Daly Burk - A Stan Klos Biography
BURK, John Daly, historian, born in Ireland; died near
Campbell's Bridge, Virginia, 11 April, 1808. He was of the same family as Edmund
Burke, the orator. While in Trinity College, Dublin, he published articles in
the Dublin "Evening Post," which caused his expulsion on a charge of deism and
republicanism. He afterward made himself obnoxious to the government, and fled
to this country about 1796.
In October of that year he established a daily paper in
Boston, called the "Polar Star," which met with little success, and was
discontinued in 1797. He afterward edited another paper in New York City, where
he was arrested under the sedition law for publishing a libel. He then removed
to Petersburg, Virginia, and devoted himself to the practice of law and to
literature. He was killed in a duel with Felix Coquebert, in consequence of a
political dispute.
Burk was at one time master of ceremonies at the Boston
theatre. He published "Bunker Hill," a tragedy; "Bethlem Gabor," an historical
drama (1803); "History of the Late War in Ireland" (Philadelphia, 1799); and a
"History of Virginia from its First Settlement to 1804" (3 vols, Petersburg,
1804). An additional volume, by Messrs. Jones and Girardin, was published in
1816. Burk's "Bunker Hill" was for some time performed periodically at the
Boston theatre, to please patriotic audiences. It was hastily written, and had
little merit. President Adams said it represented Warren as a "bully and a
blackguard."
--Burk's son, John Junius Burk, born in Virginia in
1800; died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 17 July, 1866, was educated at William and
Mary College, went to Louisiana, where he studied law, and was for many years a
prominent lawyer there, and judge of the state court. See a memoir of Burk, by
Charles Campbell (Albany, 1868).
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Edited Appletons Encyclopedia by John Looby, Copyright © 2001
StanKlos.comTM
BURN, John Daly, historian, born in Ireland; died near Campbell's Bridge, Virginia, 11 April, 1808. He was of the same family as Edmund Burke, the orator. While in Trinity College, Dublin, he published articles in the Dublin "Evening Post," which caused his expulsion on a charge of deism and republicanism. He afterward made himself obnoxious to the government, and fled to this country about 1796. In October of that year he established a daily paper in Boston, called the "Polar Star," which met with little success, and was discontinued in 1797. He afterward edited another paper in New York City, where he was arrested under the sedition law for publishing a libel. He then removed to Petersburg, Virginia, and devoted himself to the practice of law and to literature. He was killed in a duel with Felix Coquebert, in consequence of a political dispute. Burk was at one time master of ceremonies at the Boston theatre. He published "Bunker Hill," a tragedy; "Bethlem Gabor," an historical drama (1803); "History of the Late War in Ireland" (Philadelphia, 1799); and a" History of Virginia from its First Settlement to 1804" (3 vols., Petersburg, 1804). An additional volume, by Messrs. Jones and Girardin, was published in 1816. Burk's "Bunker Hill" was for some time performed periodically at the Boston theatre, to please patriotic audiences. It was hastily written, and had little merit. President Adams said it represented Warren as a "bully and a blackguard."--Burk's son, John Junius, born in Virginia in 1800; died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 17 July, 1866, was educated at William and Mary College, went to Louisiana, where he studied law, and was for many years a prominent lawyer there, and judge of the state court. See a memoir of Burk, by Charles Campbell (Albany, 1868).
