Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton Chapter 1 "The Gypsy Child"

Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton is a biography of a very famous explorer's life written by Edward Rice. In his book Edward Rice captured the immense passion of the man as no other biographer has before him. Edward Rice spent a number of years collecting details that make this study and biography of Richard Burton so much better. Sir Richard Burton is both a fascinating and controversial figure. He was as brave as he was brilliant. His curiosity for the strange and the unknown was almost insatiable. This curiosity led to lots of dangerous situations. Over his many years as an explorer, he suffered from almost every disease imaginable. 

So that was a tiny glimpse on who Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton was. Richard Francis Burton was a very common English name back in the 19th century but was also a Gypsy or Romany name and everyone believed that he had the appearance of a Gypsy. His father, Joseph Burton, however was a very well respected man and a lieutenant in the British Army. He was sent to Sicily at the age of 17 in 1806 to fight in the Napoleonic War when he should have really been at school, and was said to have been the youngest officers at the time. When he arrived back to England he met a bride for himself, her name was Martha Baker. Martha Baker was a very rich woman and she helped Joseph Burton pay off troubles he had with his estates in Ireland.

Shortly after their wedding, they had their first child, Richard Francis Burton, after Martha's father and Joseph's brother. Being raised by an officer from the army meant that Richard was a very disciplined child, but he got fed up of being pushed around all the time and learnt how to use and wield guns at a very young age. By the age of 9, Richard Burton was a "hard-core" child and a criminal in a way as he used take his father's guns and use tombstones as targets to shoot at and shot out the stained glass from the church windows.