Sir William Westbrooke Burton (31 January 1794 – 6 August 1888) was a judge and President of the Legislative Council, New South Wales, Australia.

Burton was educated at Daventry Grammar School and entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman in 1807 and served in the Conqueror under Thomas Fellowes, a very strict disciplinarian and later a rear-admiral.

He endeavoured also with some success to improve the miserable conditions of the convicts; Burton being a religious man, arranged that two of the prisoners should act as catechists to the others until clergy could be procured.

[1][3][4][5]This is not a case where any provocation has been given, which might have been pleaded in excuse for the deed… The murder was not confined to one man, but extended to many, including men, women, children, and babies hanging at their mothers’ breasts, in numbers not less than 30 human souls — slaughtered in cool blood.

In that hut the prisoners, unmoved by the tears, groans, and sighs, bound them with cords — fathers, mothers, and children indiscriminately – and carried them away to a short distance, when the scene of slaughter commenced, and stopped not until all were exterminated, with the exception of one woman.

I do not mention these circumstances to add to the agony of that moment, but to portray to those standing around the horrors which attended this merciless proceeding, in order, if possible, to avert similar consequences hereafter.

The crime was, however, committed in the sight of God, and the blood of the victims cries for vengeance.In 1844, Burton was appointed a judge at Madras, leaving New South Wales on 6 July 1844, three months before the death of Chief Justice Sir James Dowling.

When the council met and the new members were waiting to be sworn in, Burton stated that he felt he had been treated with discourtesy in the matter, resigned his office of president and his membership, and left the chamber followed by several others.