Career
By 1838 he owned many properties in the west end of the town, where he lived in Charles Street, and in Hindsford across the Hindsford Brook. In 1845 his firm was named Burton, Chippendale and Company but the partnership was dissolved. James Burton & Sons was the biggest mill-owning business in the area in the middle of the 19th century.
Burton built a cluster of cotton mills in Hindsford starting with Atherton Mill in 1839, followed by Lodge Mill in 1853, Field Mill in 1856, and Westfield Mill in 1860, all of which were supplied with water by the Hindsford Brook.
Burton was a Liberal. He represented Tyldesley on the Board of Guardians of the Leigh Poor Law Union.
He died in 1868 and is buried in Street George"s churchyard. A fire at the mills caused £15,000 damage in November 1883.
In 1891 Burton"s mills had 157,196 spindles and 570 looms.
The mills were stripped of machinery and demolished in 1926.
