May 28th John Burton (Death)

     

Lostwithiel – born John Burton (1839-1907) was the son of, the Lancashire – born, Joseph Burton who had married a Miss Clemo at Launceston. When John was six months old, the family moved to Bodmin where Joseph established a china and glass shop. 

Until he was 22, John worked in his father’s business but then left home to establish, in Falmouth and funded with thirty shillings, his  ‘Old Curiosity Shop’ which became world famous. After scraping a living hawking crockery and china, he began buying unusual items from sailors arriving at Falmouth.

With a growing reputation for curios, Burton moved to larger premises next to the ‘Royal Hotel’. 

He travelled across Cornwall to buy and sell in the ports and became fairly wealthy and sufficiently famous that  when the future King Edward VII visited Falmouth (1887) as the, then, Duke of Cornwall, he demanded a visit to the shop.  After that proved inconvenient Edward purchased a number of items by mail order.

Burton became renowned as well for exchanging goods for his own tokens which could only be redeemed for other goods.

 

 

 

 

 

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