Skip to main content
James Boswell .info logo James Boswell .info
  • James Boswell
  • Biographies
  • FAQ
  • Forum
  • Literature
  • Original sources
  • Scholars
  • About the site
Home

Help us improve and win an Amazon gift certificate - four quick questions!

Alexander Burnett - 4th Laird of Kemnay

Biography


Birth: 1735
Death: 1802

Son of George Burnett (1714-1780) and Helen Burnett (d. 1750). Married (1782) to Christian Leslie (d. 1842), with whom he had at least 6 children.

Burnett was secretary to Sir Andrew Mitchell in Berlin from the early 1760s. Upon Mitchell's death in 1770, Burnett became British Chargé d’Affaires in Berlin, a post which he held until 1772, when he returned back to Scotland.1

Also known as

  • 4th Laird of Kemnay
  • Life with James Boswell

    Boswell played billards with Burnett, whom he'd met through Andrew Mitchell, in Berlin on July 15, 1764. Boswell described him as "a very good, solid, clever young fellow". They met on a number of other occassions during Boswell's stay in that city. On August 28 Boswell described him as "a solid, clear-headed fellow, much better than myself".

    Notes

    Note 1: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~houseofburnett/kemnay.html


    Recommended literature

  • Search the Questia online library for "Alexander Burnett"

  • Mentioned in

    Alexander Burnett is mentioned in:

  • Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland 1763-1764
    • Add new comment
    Google
    Custom Search
    Latest 10 biographies
    James Bruce
    Matthias Oesterreich
    Christoph Dietrich von Keller
    Frederick Augustus I of Saxony
    Franz Xavier, Prince of Saxony
    William O'Carroll
    Werner von der Schulenburg
    Marianne de Chesne
    Emerich de Vattel
    Philip Stanhope
    (C) Thomas Frandzen 2004-2009