Background
A son of Robert Burnet, Lord Crimond, he was a brother of Gilbert Burnet.
A son of Robert Burnet, Lord Crimond, he was a brother of Gilbert Burnet.
He studied and graduated in medicine at the University of Montpellier, when already Master of Arts, and the theses which he defended for his degree on 26–28 August 1659 show that his medical knowledge was mainly based on Galen and Hippocrates.
He returned to Edinburgh and practised there. Burnet is named in the original charter of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, granted in 1681, as a fellowship He was physician to Charles II, James II, William and Mary and Queen Anne.
Burnet was knighted some time before 1691. at the University of Leyden in 1691.