Release and Later Life
On 7 November 1640 his wife presented a petition to the House of Commons for his release, and on 10 November the house ordered him to be sent to London. The order arrived at Guernsey on Sunday, 15 November and Burton embarked on the 21st. At Dartmouth, on the 22nd, he met Prynne, and their journey to London was again a triumphal progress. They were escorted from Charing Cross to the City of London. On 30 November Burton appeared before the House, and on 5 December presented a petition; the House on 12 March 1641 declared the proceedings against him illegal, and cast Laud and others in damages. On 24 March his sentence was reversed, and his benefice ordered to be restored; on 20 April a sum of £6,000 was voted to him; on 8 June a further order for his restoration to his benefice was made out. He recovered his degrees, and received that of B.D. in addition. The money was not paid, nor did he get his benefice, to which Robert Chestlin had been regularly presented.
On 5 October 1642 his old parishioners petitioned the House that he might be appointed Sunday afternoon lecturer, and this was done. Chestlin, who resisted the appointment, was imprisoned at Colchester for a seditious sermon; he escaped to the king at Oxford. Left thus in possession at St. Matthew's, Friday Street, Burton organised a church on the independent model. He preached before parliament, but did not approve the course which events subsequently took. He was for some time allowed to hold a catechetical lecture every Tuesday fortnight at St. Mary's, Aldermanbury, but on his introducing his independent views the churchwardens locked him out in September 1645. This led to an angry pamphlet war with Edmund Calamy, rector of the parish. During his imprisonment he suffered from kidney disease, which was probably the cause of his death. He was buried on 7 January 1648.
Read more about this topic: Henry Burton (Puritan)
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