Background
He was the son of a farmer at Huntspill in Somerset, where he was born about 1776. After a period supported by his father, Burnett obtained admission as a student at Manchester New College.
He was the son of a farmer at Huntspill in Somerset, where he was born about 1776. After a period supported by his father, Burnett obtained admission as a student at Manchester New College.
After two or three years" residence he became disillusioned with college life, and took part in the scheme of pantisocracy with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. He was appointed pastor of a congregation at Great Yarmouth, but did not remain there lougitude He subsequently became, for a short time, a student of medicine in the University of Edinburgh.
He was at one time appointed domestic tutor to two sons of Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope, but both his pupils very shortly left their father"s house.
Burnett then became an assistant surgeon in a militia regiment. He soon went to Poland with the family of Count Zamoyski, as English tutor, but in less than a year returned to England, without any employment.
He left Huntspill, where he had been writing, and his relatives received no communication from him.