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John C.Guy in his article "Edinburgh Engravers" in The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, Ninth Volume, 1916, [pp.79-113] records of Horsburgh [pp.100-101]; "John Horsburgh was born at Prestonpans on 16th November 1791, and attended the Trustees' Academy, over and above serving his apprenticeship as an engraver [under Robert Scott]. He did not, however, attempt painting, but confined himself to engraving. He practised his art first at 5 Archibald Place and afterwards at 18 Buccleuch Place, where he died on 23rd September 1869 in his seventy-eighth year.

An obituary notice in The Scotsman contained the following; "Mr Horsburgh's professional powers were versatile; he executed either figures or landscapes with equal judgment and taste. Among his portraits may be mentioned thos eof the late Mr Mackay as 'Bailie Nicol Jarvie' after Sir William Allan; two portraits of Sir Walter Scott - one after Raeburn and the other after Lawrence; and a portrait of Burns after P.Taylor - the portrait representing the poet in a broad-rimmed hat, about the genuineness of which there was much discussion, though its authenticity is now firmly established. He also engraved a picture of Prince Charles Reading a Despatch, after William Simson, for the Royal Association; Italian Shepherds, after McInnes, fort he Glasgow Art Union, etc. In landscape some of the finest plates in the quarto volume of Turner's works were by Horsburgh, also some of the vignettes after Turner for the illustrated edition of Sir Walter Scott's poetical works. Mr Horsburgh was a man of amiable and excellent character, and of courteous, quiet, and even retiring manners....For the last fifteen or twenty years he may be said to have retired from professional labour."

Horsburgh engraved chiefly in line on copper. But he also etched in outline seven plates illustrating events in the life of Robert Burns, and contributed fifteen of the exquisite engravings on steel after H.W.Williams' Views in Greece, published in 1829. His 'Plain of Marathon' and 'Athens from the hill of the Museum' are gems. He was also a contributor to the landscape illustrations in The Land of Burns, published in 1840. These steel engravings are all of the highest order."

Horsburgh was one of the original Associate Engravers elected in 1826 to the Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

His death was not reported in the RSA Annual Reports.