Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/399

 Arlington and Charles without consulting him. In the intrigues which followed, Burnet, in contrast to James Sharp, who had been for the time won over by Lauderdale, and was used now to counteract his colleague, pursued a thoroughly honest course in opposition to conciliation, under the encouragement of Sheldon. ‘Honest’ and ‘stout’ are epithets often used of him. In 1669 Lauderdale came to Scotland as high commissioner. The Act of Supremacy was immediately passed, by which the absolute control of all persons and matters in the church was put in the king's hands. Burnet had shortly before held a synod at Glasgow, in which he put forth a vehement remonstrance against Lauderdale's policy. The new act was at once, and in the first place, used to insist upon his resignation, a copy of which, dated 24 Dec. 1669, is among the Sheldon MSS. For the events which led to his resignation, and of which the foregoing sentences are a summary, see ‘Lauderdale Papers,’ referred to above. He was succeeded by Leighton, a devoted favourer of conciliation, and for four years lived in retirement. In his letter to Sheldon at the time of his resignation he begs that some private corner may be found for him in England, where he may die, as he has lived, in fellowship with that church. On Leighton's retirement in 1674, Lauderdale's policy having changed, Burnet was, on 29 Sept., restored to his archbishopric, probably in deference to the opinion of the English bishops. He was restored to the privy council on 3 Dec. of the same year. Wodrow (ii. 144) mentions an additional reason for this restoration, which in itself is most probable, having regard to the corruption of the administration, but for which he does not himself vouch, and which is not supported by Gilbert Burnet or by any other authority. Burnet, according to his questionable anecdote, was to regain his archbishopric in return for sacrificing the claims of his daughter, the widow of the late heir to the Elphinstone property, to her jointure, in favour of Lauderdale's niece, who was to marry the next heir. Upon the murder of Sharp in 1679 Burnet was promoted to the primacy on 28 Oct., and retained the post until his death in the Novum Hospitium of St. Andrews on 22 Aug. 1684. He is stated by Fountainhall to have been buried in St. Salvator's College, near the tomb of Bishop Kennedy; there is, however, now no trace of the burial-place visible. In his will occurs a gift of one thousand merks to the poor of St. Andrews (, Scotichronicon). On the last letter which he received from Burnet, Archbishop Sancroft endorsed the following lines:— Obiit Aug. 22, 1684, horâ matutinâ. Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit: Nulli flebilior quam tibi, Scotia. Burnet married Elizabeth Fleming of Littrie in Fife, and left two daughters, who married respectively the son of Lord Elphinstone and Lord Elliebank (MS. Advocates' Library).

[Keith's Scottish Bishops; Burnet's Own Time; Sheldon MSS. Bodleian Library; the greater number of the letters from Burnet to Sheldon will be found in the Appendix to vol. ii. of the Lauderdale Papers (Camden Society), a selection from the Lauderdale MSS. British Museum; Wodrow's Hist. Church of Scotland; Fountainhall's Chronicles; Grubb's Hist. Church of Scotland; Stephen's Hist. Church of Scotland; Gordon's Scotichronicon; Law's Memorials; Mackenzie's Memoirs; Collection of Letters to Sancroft, edited from the originals in the Bodleian by Dr. Nelson Clarke; Abstract of the Writs of the City of St. Andrews, 1767; Lyon's Hist. of St. Andrews.] 

BURNET, ELIZABETH (1661–1709), religious writer, third wife of Bishop Burnet, was born at Earontoun, near Southampton, on 8 Nov. 1661. Her father was Sir Richard Blake; her mother was Elizabeth, a daughter of Dr. Bathurst, a London physician, and she was their eldest daughter (Some Account of her Life, p. v). Fell, bishop of Oxford, was known to her and her family, and he being a guardian of Robert Berkeley of Spetchley, Worcestershire (grandson of Sir Robert Berkeley [q. v.]), brought about an acquaintance between Elizabeth and his ward, which ended in their marriage in 1678 (ib. v), Elizabeth being then seventeen years old. Mrs. Berkeley had no skill in the learned languages, but she was an incessant reader of the scriptures and of commentators (see her ‘List of Books’ recommended, ib. 391); Stillingfleet said he ‘knew not a more considerable woman in England than she’ (ib. ix). About 1684, Mr. and Mrs. Berkeley left England for Holland (ib. viii), and settled at the Hague. There they became warm adherents of the Prince of Orange (ib. xxx), and they returned to their country life at Spetchley soon after the prince became William III. Their riches were great, and their charities kept measure with them. They projected building a hospital at Worcester, and a school for poor children; and in 1693, when Berkeley died, Mrs. Berkeley carried out these projects (ib. xii). Her widowhood lasted seven years, during which she wrote ‘A Method of Devotion,’ the book by which she is chiefly known. She then married Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Salisbury, who had lost his second wife in 1698, and by him