| Authorised form of name | Burnett; William (1688 - 1729) |
| Other forms of surname | Burnet |
| Dates | 1688 - 1729 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | The Hague, Netherlands |
| Date of birth | 16 February 1688 |
| Place of death | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Date of death | 07 September 1729 |
| Activity | Education:
Trinity College, Cambridge; MA (1702); Leyden
Career:
Had a post in the Revenue; lost money in the South Sea Bubble; Governor of New York and New Jersey (1720); transferred against his will to be Governor of Massachusetts (1728) and of New Hampshire (1729), where he quarrelled with the assembly who refused him a fixed salary |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 13/02/1706 |
| RSActivity | Royal Society roles:
Council: 1715-1716 |
| Relationships | Son of Gilbert Burnett, Bishop of Salisbury (FRS 1664)and his second wife, Mary Scott; brother of Gilbert Burnett (FRS 1723) and Sir Thomas Burnett (FRS 1748).
Married; 1) a daughter of Dean Stanhope; 2) Anna Maria (Mary), daughter of Abraham Van Hoorne of New York and his wife, Mary Prevost |
| OtherInfo | The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and reduce the cost of the national debt. To generate income, in 1713 the company was granted a monopoly (the Asiento) to supply enslaved Africans to the islands in the 'South Seas' and South America. Company stock rose greatly in value as it expanded its operations dealing in government debt, and peaked in 1720 before suddenly collapsing to little above its original flotation price. The notorious economic bubble thus created, which ruined thousands of investors, became known as the South Sea Bubble. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DAB; DNB (father's entry); Venn; Dalton George I; Thomas
References:
P Fontes da Costa, 'The Culture of Curiosity at The Royal Society in the first half of the eighteenth century', NR 2002 vo l56 pp 147-166
Notes:
DNB and DAB list him under Burnet. |
| Code | NA5646 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| MS/390/122 | Bond of William Burnet to the Treasurer of the Royal Society | 25 March 1706 |
| EL/C2/33 | Letter, from John Craig to William Burnet, dated at Gillingham | 25 March 1712 |
| CLP/8i/76 | Paper, 'Four observations of the eclipses of the first satellite of Jupiter made in the fort of New York for determining the longitude of that place. Its latitude was formerly determin'd to be 40°40'' by W [William] Burnet, C [Cadwallader] Colden and J [James] Alexander | 1724 |