John Burrell (poet)

John Burrell or John Burel (fl. 1590) was a Scottish poet and goldsmith.

He was the author of a poetical description of the entry of Queen Anne (Anne of Denmark) into Edinburgh in 1590, titled The Discription of the Queenis Maiesties most honourable entry into the town of Edinburgh. Among the title-deeds of a small property at the foot of Todricks Wynd, Edinburgh, there was found a disposition of a house by John Burrel, goldsmith, yane of the printers in his majesties cunzie house (king's mint) in 1628. From the minuteness with which the poet describes the jewellery displayed on Queen Anne's entry, it appears that he had a special technical knowledge of such matters, and there is thus every reason to suppose him to have been identical with John Burrel of the king's mint. The poem, along with another by the same author, titled The Passage of the Pilgrims, divided into four parts, was published in Watson's Collection of Scots Poems and the former is also included in Sir Robert Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry. Neither of the poems possesses any literary merit.

In 1601 Francis Mowbray wrote to Sir Robert Cecil from Edinburgh complaining about John Burrell who was in London and had ridiculed him in verse and had a sonnet against him published. Mowbray enclosed a copy of the printed poem (which survives) and wanted the poet put in prison.[1]

References

1. Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1597-1603, vol. 13 (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 807-8.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1886). "Burrel, John". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 07. London: Smith, Elder & Co.