Thomas Burnet (1694–1753) was an English wit, barrister and judge, from a Scottish-Dutch background.
Early life
He was the grandson of the Scottish judge Robert Burnet, Lord Crimond; and third and youngest son of Gilbert Burnet by his second wife, Mrs. Mary Scott, a rich Dutch lady of Scottish extraction. His mother died in 1698: two years later his father remarried her best friend Elizabeth Berkeley, who proved to be a kindly stepmother to Thomas and his siblings. He was educated at home, entered Merton College, Oxford, and in 1706 went to the University of Leyden, where he remained for two years. Afterwards, he travelled in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, and on his return entered at Middle Temple in 1709.[1]
As a young man, Burnet's attention was on Whig politics; he was notorious about London for debauchery and wit. Jonathan Swift, writing of the Mohocks in 1712, said: "The bishop of Salisbury's son is said to be of the gang; they are all whigs". His reputation for debauchery caused his father much distress, although there was no permanent estrangement, and Thomas was sincerely grieved by the death of Gilbert, whom he called "the best of fathers", in 1715.
In 1716, he went as the King's Secretary to the Diet of Regensburg.[2] He published many pamphlets, for one of which, Certain information of a certain discourse, the Whigs, on their accession to power, rewarded him with the consulship at Lisbon, a post he held from 1719[3][4] to 1728[5] There he quarrelled with Charles O'Hara, 1st Baron Tyrawley, the English ambassador, and took revenge by appearing on a great occasion in a plain suit himself, but with lacqueys in suits copied from that which the ambassador was to wear.
Burnet died unmarried, at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, on 8 January 1753, of gout in the stomach, and was buried near his father at St. James's Church, Clerkenwell. Some scandal was created by a clause in his will that he "lived as he trusted he should die, in the true faith of Christ as taught in the scriptures, but not in any one visible church that I know of, though I think the Church of England is as little stuffed with the inventions of men as any of them".[12]
Works
His writings were numerous. To his father's History of my own Time he prefixed a life and copy of his will. He is said to have submitted his father's manuscript to Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, who made some alterations, and to have curtailed it himself. The bishop's will had directed that no passages should be omitted, and in the second volume Burnet had promised to deposit the manuscript of both volumes, written by the bishop's amanuensis and corrected throughout by himself, in the Cotton Library; but failed to fulfil his promise.[13]
Other works are:
Our Ancestors as Wise as we, by T. B., 1712, and a sequel, The History of Ingratitude;
Essays Divine, Moral, and Political, by the Author of “The Tale of a Tub,” 1714;
The True Character of an Honest Man;
Truth if you can find it;
A Letter to the People, to be left for them at the Booksellers;
Some New Proofs by which it appears that the Pretender is truly James III, 1713 and 1714;
A Second Tale of a Tub, 1715;
British Bulwark, 1715;
The Necessity of impeaching the late Ministry, a Letter to Earl of Halifax, three editions, 1715;
and a volume of posthumous poems, 1777. He also wrote in The Grumbler and replied to George Granville's vindication of General George Monck against Gilbert Burnet's strictures.
References
^ ab"News." Read's Weekly Journal Or British Gazetteer [London, England] 15 May 1736: n.p. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection. Web. 9 Nov. 2020: The following Gentlemen have received Writs to take upon them the Degree of the Coif, which Writs are returnable on the 4th of June...Thomas Burnet, Esq; admitted January 15, 1708 [old style date, new style would be 1709], and called to the Bar Hilary 1728 [old style date, as new style date this would be 1729], of the Middle Temple.
^"News." Daily Courant [London, England] 23 June 1716: n.p. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection. Web. 9 Nov. 2020: London, June 23...and Thomas Burnet, Esq; Son to the late Lord Bishop of Salisbury, will go in Quality of the King's Secretary to the Diet at Ratisbon.
^"News." Post Boy (1695) [London, England] May 7, 1719 - May 9, 1719: n.p. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection. Web. 9 Nov. 2020: Thomas Burnet Esq; Son of the late Bishop of Sarum, is appointed his Majesty's Consul at Lisbon.
^"News." London Gazette [London, England] May 16, 1719 - May 19, 1719: n.p. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection. Web. 9 Nov. 2020: Whitehall, May 17...His Majesty has been pleased to appoint...Thomas Burnet, Esq; to be His Majesty's Consul-General in the Dominions and Kingdom of Portugal, and his Agent and Consul-General in the Islands of Madera [sic].
^"News." London Evening Post [London, England] Feb. 29, 1728 - Mar. 2, 1728: n.p. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection. Web. 9 Nov. 2020: Thomas Burnet, Esq; late his Majesty's Consul General for Portugal, arrived some Days ago at Plymouth in the King George Packet Boat from Lisbon, and was expected in Town yesterday.
^"Arts & Entertainment." Weekly Miscellany (1732) [London, England] 15 May 1736: n.p. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection. Web. 9 Nov. 2020: The 14 following Gentlemen go out this Term Serjeants at Law; viz. Of the Middle Temple. Robert Price, Michael Foster, William Wyne, John Agar, Robert-Johnston Ketleby, William Hayward, Samuel Prime, Thomas Burnet, and Thomas Barnardiston, Esq; Of the Inner Temple. Thomas Parker, Edward Bootle, Esqs; Of Lincoln's-Inn. Thomas Hussey, Abraham Gapper, Esqs; And of Grays Inn. Richard Draper, Esq.
^"News." Country Journal or The Craftsman [London, England] 17 May 1740: n.p. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection. Web. 9 Nov. 2020: Pref. Thomas Burnet, Esq; to be King's Serjeant
^"News." Champion Or Evening Advertiser [London, England] 3 Nov. 1741: n.p. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection. Web. 9 Nov. 2020: The same Day [Yesterday] Thomas Burnet, Esq; Serjeant at Law, kiss'd his Majesty's Hand, on his being appointed one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas.
^"News." Scots Magazine [Edinburgh, Scotland] 1 Nov. 1745: 523+. British Library Newspapers. Web. 9 Nov. 2020: They had all the honour to kiss the King's hand: and his Majesty conferred the honour of Knighthood on...Thomas Burnet, one of the Justices of the Common Pleas...
^"Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries." Scots Magazine [Edinburgh, Scotland] 1 Jan. 1753: 49+. British Library Newspapers. Web. 9 Nov. 2020: Jan...7. At London, of the gout in his stomach, Sir Thomas Burnet, one of the judges of the court of common pleas. He was the eldest son of the late Dr Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury; was several years his Majesty's consul at Lisbon; in Nov. 1741 was made one of the judges of the common pleas; and was knighted Nov. 23 1745, when the Lord Chancellor, judges, and association of the gentleman of the law, waited on his Majesty with their address, on occasion of the rebellion.-In his last will he says, "I think it proper in this solemn act to declare, that as I have lived, so I trust I shall die, in the true faith of Christ, as taught in the scriptures; but not as taught or practised in any one visible church I know of; though I think the church of England is a little stuffed with the inventions of men as any of them; and the church of Rome is so full of them, as to destroy all that is lovely in the Christian religion."
^For the omitted passages see European Magazine, v. 27, 39, 157, 221, 374.
McLeod, Anne Byrne (2011). The Mid-Eighteenth Century Navy from the Perspective of Captain Thomas Burnett and His Peers (Ph.D.). Exeter University. OCLC757128667.
