Date Published:
July 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Ralph Burton

Burton , Ralph (d. 1768?), military governor of Three Rivers (1760-62), was a British army officer who came to America at the beginning of the Seven Years' War. As lieut.-colonel of the 48th Foot, he fought with Braddock at the Monongahela, and was wounded. He served at Louisbourg in 1758 and at Quebec in 1759, and was again wounded at the battle of Montmorency. After the capture of Quebec in 1759, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of the town under James Murray ; and after the capture of Montreal in 1760, he was appointed governor of the district of Three Rivers. With the exception of the year 1763, spent with his regiment in Cuba, he remained governor of Three Rivers throughout most of the period of military rule in Canada. In 1760 he was promoted to be colonel of the 95th Regiment; and in 1762 he was gazetted a major-general. After the institution of civil government in Canada in 1764, he was given command of the troops in the Northern Department; and trouble occurred between him and Murray, who had become civil governor at Quebec. He seems to have died in 1768, since his name disappears from the Army list in 1769. See E. B. O ' Callaghan, Le major-général Ralph Burton (Bull. rech. hist., 1901).

[Consult the biography of Burton at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography]

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Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. I, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., pp. 327-328.