John Britton was born near Chippenham, Wiltshire, United Kingdom, the eldest son of Henry and Anne Hillier Britton and 4th of 10 children. Britton left school at the age of 13 to help in the family shop and in 1787 left Wiltshire for London to apprentice in corking and bottling.

Britton knew little when he left school but studied on his own, and from a chance meeting in a bookshop in 1789 began a long-lasting topographical partnership with Edward Wedlake Brayley (1773-1854), an antiquarian and topographer. They worked on several volumes together, including notably The Beauties of England and Wales, which became 27 volumes and took 20 years to complete. Britton also worked on The Architectural Antiquities of Great Brtain (1807, 1809, 1812, 1814, 1827), a survey of English cathedrals, and Specimens of Gothic Architecture (2 volumes, 1820-1825), amongst other works. Britton served as editor, author, publisher, draughtsman, publicist, and/or designer and organized engravers and illustrators for the works in which he was involved.

Britton was devoted to protecting ancient monuments in Great Britain and in 1835 was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, which he had supported creating. Britton married twice and had no children by either marriage; he died of bronchitis in London in 1857.

[Information retrieved from Crook, J. Mordaunt, "Britton, John," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2008.]