At one time was Rector of Letteringsett in Norfolk. Published the first substantial local list of British Coleoptera: 'A Catalogue of Insects found in Norfolk' in Trans.Ent.Soc., 1806,1807,1809 and 1812, 101-240. The list included 807 species listed in Marsham (1802) and 39 others new to Britain. Burrell also published a note on Lygeus micropterus in Transactions of the Aurelian Society, 1, 1807, 73-74. He was a subscriber to Denny (1825) and according to a typescript in Norwich Museum gave insects to the Norwich Society in 1825.
The Carabid Pogonus burrelli was named by Curtis after Burrell who first found it in this country at Salthouse on the Norfolk coast. Dawson, however, soon showed the species to be synonymous with the continental P. luridipennis, Germar.
FLS. (MD 12/01)