Lieutenant-Colonel James Burton ( James Haliburton; 29 July 1761 – 31 March 1837) was the most successful property developer of Regency and of Georgian London, in which he built over 3000 properties in 250 acres. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography contends that Burton was 'the most successful developer in late Georgian London, responsible for some of its most characteristic architecture'. James built most of Bloomsbury (including Bedford Square, Russell Square, Bloomsbury Square, Tavistock Square, and Cartwright Gardens), and St John's Wood, Regent Street, Regent Street St. James, Waterloo Place, St. James's, Swallow Street, Regent's Park (including its Inner Circle villas in addition to Chester Terrace, Cornwall Terrace, Clarence Terrace, and York Terrace). James also financed and built the projects of John Nash at Regent's Park (most of which were designed by James's son Decimus Burton, rather than by Nash) to the extent that the Commissioners of Woods described James, not Nash, as 'the architect of Regent's Park'. James also developed the town of St Leonards-on-Sea, which is now part of Hastings. James Burton was a member of London high society during the Georgian era and during the Regency era. He was an early member of the Athenaeum Club, London, whose Clubhouse his company built to a design by his son Decimus Burton, who was the Club's 'prime member'. James was a friend of Princess Victoria (the future Queen Victoria), and of the Duchess of Kent. He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers, and Sheriff of Kent. James's children included the Egyptologist James Burton; the physician Henry Burton; and the architect Decimus Burton. He was the grandfather of Constance Mary Fearon, who was the founder of the Francis Bacon Society. The Burtons' London mansion, The Holme of Regent's Park (which was built by James's company to a design by Decimus Burton) was described by 20th century architectural critic Ian Nairn as 'a definition of Western civilization in a single view'. Burton also built the Burtons' Tonbridge mansion Mabledon. Family James Burton was born in Strand, London, as James Haliburton, on 29 July 1761. He was the son of William Haliburton (1731–1785), who was a Scottish property-developer whose family were from Roxburghshire, and of Mary Foster (who was previously Mary Johnson; 1735–1785), whom his father married in 1760. Mary Foster was the daughter of Nicholas Foster of Kirkby Fleetham, Yorkshire.<ref name=ODNB>{{cite web|url=http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/50182?rskey=dTXFr9&result=1|title=James Burton [Haliburton]", Oxford Dictionary of