John Burns

Who was John Burns?

Rev. Dr. John Burns D.D. was born in Stirling, the son of John Burns of Stirth and Janet Young of Risk.

He was a minister in the Church of Scotland, and he served a Glasgow cure longer than any minister on record, having been in the Barony for sixty-nine years. Four of these years he was assistant to the Rev. Lawrence Hill, and sixty-five as minister himself.

He was an ally of the Anti-Slavery Society and the Bible Society. Although Robert Raikes is usually credited for the origin of Sunday school in the early 1780s, Dr. Burns opened a "Sabbath Night School" in Calton in 1774 or 1775.

He married Elizabeth Stevenson, daughter of John Stevenson, brewer in Glasgow. Among Burns's nine children, Dr. John Burns became Regius Professor of Surgery at the University of Glasgow, Dr. Allan Burns was a physician to the Imperial Court of Russia, James Burns was a shipowner and Sir George Burns was his partner in G & J Burns.