Sir Francis Nathaniel Burton (26 December 1766 – 20 January 1832) was a British colonial administrator in Lower Canada and Irish politician.
Burton was the younger son of Francis Conyngham, 2nd Baron Conyngham, and Elizabeth Clements, daughter of Nathaniel Clements. Henry Conyngham, 1st Marquess Conyngham, was his elder brother. He sat as Member of Parliament (MP) in the Irish House of Commons for Killybegs in 1790 and 1798 and Clare from 1790 to the Act of Union in 1801. He sat then for Clare in the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1808.
Burton was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada on 29 November 1808, but did not travel to Lower Canada until 1822, under threat of removal of his salary. During the absence of Governor George Ramsay, Burton acted as administrator of Lower Canada from 7 June 1824 – September 1825. Although he left Quebec City in October 1825 on a permanent "leave of absence", he remained the official Lieutenant Governor until his death in 1832.
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—Mario Puzo, U.S. author, screenwriter, and Francis Ford Coppola, U.S. director, screenwriter. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino)
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“Idleness is an appendix to nobility.”
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