Did you know?

James Boswell died in 1795 believing he had touched and kissed a cache of Shakespeare's original letters and papers discovered by a Mr. Ireland. His friend, Edmond Malone, publicly exposed the lot as a forgery just a year later.

Biographies

James Boswell mentioned thousands of people in his extensive journals and other writings. Read about an ever increasing number of those people, and about their relationship with Boswell, in our biographies section.

Literature

In our literature section you can read about the numerous books published by Boswell in his own lifetime, and about more than 40 other books about or related to Boswell published since his death in 1795.

Alexander Burnett - 4th Laird of Kemnay

Alexander Burnett

Born 1735
Died Dec 30, 1802

Alias:

4th Laird of Kemnay

Biography:

Son of George Burnett (1714-1780) and Helen Burnett (d. 1750). Married (1782) to Christian Leslie (d. 1842), daughter of Prof. John Leslie of Aberdeen, 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

Life with 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