no 



Kington St. Michael. 



{John Brit ton. 



circumstances which without the aid of a Horoscope may safely be 

 pronounced to have been as unpromising as well could be. lie was 

 born in a cottage (represented in the wood cut), still standing at 



John Biitton's Birth-place. 



the angle formed by the main street of Kington St. Michael with 

 the lane that leads to the Church.^ lie was the fourth of ten 

 chikb-en, but eldest son, of Henry and Ann Britton, without inhe- 

 ritance or much prospect of it. His father's occupation included 

 various branches of petty village business. He was baker, maltster, 

 shopkeeper and small farmer: and a single room 14 feet wide hy 

 65 high, with a heavy beam across the ceiling and a floor of stone, 

 served for parlour, kitchen, hall, and nm-sery. Under-housed, 

 over-stocked with children, and encumbered with many trades 

 without success in any, the fatlier sank into poverty. John received 

 instruction at a dame's school, and having mastered the " Chris- 



1 He was baptized August 4th bj'^ John Scrope, Vicar, CPar. Reg.) The 



mari'iai^e of his parents Henry Britton anil Ann Hillior, on 10th January 1765, 

 is registered at Norton about 5 miles I'roni Kington St. Micliael's. Her family 

 were at that time tenants of Maidford Farm in that parish : and in the first 

 cottage going from Maidford to Norton Church, Mr. Britton (as ho told the 

 writer) learned iiis A B C. 



