Jacob Henry Burn

Jacob Henry Burn (1794 - 1869) was an essayist and book publisher. Letters between Burn and English Botanist Dawson Turner, are held by the American Philosophical Society.

Jacob married Sarah Hone (eldest daughter of William Hone) at St Martin in the Fields Church, London in 1822. They had three sons, Robert, Henry and Allan. Their sons Robert and Allan emigrated to Melbourne, Australia in the early 1850s. Both sons settled in the Bairnsdale/Orbost/Newmerella region of Victoria.

Yale University holds some of Jacob's works. His collection of papers of the actress Nell Gwyn is held by the University of Texas. Jacob was also a numismatist (a person who studies and collects coins). He wrote a book about coins/tokens used in London titled A Descriptive Catalogue of the London Traders, Tavern, and Coffee-House Tokens : Current in the Seventeenth Century - an original of which is held by Harvard University.

Jacob also wrote "Historical Collection Relative to Spring Gardens, Charing Cross and Vauxhall Gardens. To Her Royal Highness the Princess Augusta'' as well as ''Historical Collections Relative to Ranelagh Gardens.

Other Essays written by Burn include Historical Collections Relevant to the Office of the Master of the Revels.

He also compiled Catalogue of a Collection of early newspapers and essayists, formed by the late John Thomas Hope, Esq., and presented to the Bodleian Library by the late Rev. Frederick William Hope.

Jacob died in Kensington, London on 19 February 1869.[1] His Will names his wife Sarah Burn as his sole beneficiary. After his death, more than 20,000 books and other literary items were sold as part of his estate. Noted works in the collection include the office book of Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels to the Kings Charles I and Charles II .