Elizabeth Burnet

Elizabeth Burnet

Elizabeth Burnet by Godfrey Kneller
Born Elizabeth Blake
8 November, 1661
Died 3 December, 1709
London
Nationality British
Known for writing a prayer book
Religion protestant
Not to be confused with Elizabeth Burnett.

Elizabeth Burnet (8 November 1661 – 3 December 1709) was an English philanthropist and author of a prayer book, A Method of Devotion. She had two husbands.[1]

Life

Elizabeth Blake was born in 1661 and she was brought up a Puritan by her parents Sir Richard and Elizabeth Blake. Her first husband, Robert Berkeley, was the ward of her godfather who was John Fell, the Bishop of Oxford. After her godfather died and the Catholic James II of England came to the throne, she persuaded her Protestant husband to move to the Netherlands. This proved a wise move, as they returned in 1688 as part of the court of William of Orange.[2]

Blake became known to John Locke and other religious thinkers such as Bishop Stillingfleet. It was Burnet who told Locke of the Defense published by Catharine Trotter Cockburn. Burnet acted as a go-between and she gave money to the poor philosopher before Locke also assisted her financially.[3]

Burnet's first husband died in 1694 and in 1700 she married Gilbert Burnet, the Bishop of Salisbury and became Elizabeth Burnet, on the recommendation of her predecessor, Mary Burnet, who had died of smallpox while travelling in the Netherlands. Both she and Gilbert admired Elizabeth, and Mary was aware of her own mortality.[4] One of the reasons she married him was because she thought that her new husband needed her advice on handling the politics of his position.[2] After her second marriage, Burnet still had control of investments that gave her an annual income of £800. She disposed of this in charitable causes, including caring for the children of the poor of Worcester and Salisbury.[5]

Burnet's portrait, painted by Godfrey Kneller in 1707, is now in the National Portrait Gallery in London.[6]

Burnet travelled abroad for her health with her stepchildren, as her own two daughters had died while young. Burnet died in London in 1709 and she was buried at Spetchley. Near to the time of her death, the prayer book she had written after her first husband died, A Method of Devotion, was published and went into several editions.[5]

References

  1. ↑  "Burnet, Elizabeth". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Burnet, Gilbert Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time, ed. M. J. Routh (1823):Volume I,
  3. ↑ Waithe, edited by Mary Ellen (1991). A history of women philosophers. Dordrecht: Kluwer. p. 104-105. ISBN 0792309308. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Martin Greig, "Burnet, Gilbert (1643–1715)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online e., September 2013 Retrieved 6 August 2014
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Frances Harris, ‘Burnet , Elizabeth (1661–1709)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online e., May 2008 Retrieved 5 August 2014
  6. ↑ Elizabeth Burnet, National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 5 August 2014.