Burns, John William (1837 -1900)

John William Burns of Kilmahew and Cumbernauld in Dumbartonshire ,was the only son of James Burns, and his second wife Margaret Shortridge. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. in 1860. He married 10 December 1861, Helen, only daughter of General Sir George Moyle Shearer K.C.S.I. He became a member of the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh in 1863. In 1871, he succeeded his father. He was an unsuccessful Parliamentary candidate for Dumbartonshire in 1874, and a Justice of the Peace for Dumbartonshire and Lanarkshire. His eldest son, James, a Captain in the Royal Horse Guards, assumed the additional name and arms of Hartopp by Royal Licence in 1894.