Elizabeth Burnet

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Standard Name: Burnet, Elizabeth
Birth Name: Elizabeth Blake
Used Form: Mrs Burnet
Married Name: Elizabeth Berkeley
EB was a writer of personal texts: journals and letters; spiritual, philosophical, and political critique; and religious self-examination. She published one book, of meditations. Compared with other religious women writers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, however, she was more worldly, broader in her range of interests and in her sympathies.
Photograph of a painting of Elizabeth Burnet by Sir Godfrey Kneller, c. 1707. She is depicted standing, with an outdoor background of trees, resting an elbow on pedestal. One hand is at her side; the other hand holds a small book. She is wearing a red-orange dress with white lace at the neckline and wrists, and she has her brown hair in waves on her head, with a gauzy veil trailing behind. National Portrait Gallery

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Family and Intimate relationships Judith Cowper Madan
This diarist, JCM 's paternal grandmother, Sarah, Lady Cowper , was an extraordinary woman. Born into the wealthy merchant class, deeply pious, highly intelligent and well-read, she consoled herself for an unhappy marriage to an...
Friends, Associates Sarah Lady Cowper
SLC brought to the social rituals of visiting some of the same suspicious stance with which she viewed her relations. I visit Some people for the Same Causes as the Indians Worship the Devil, least...
Friends, Associates Catharine Trotter
During her London years she was an ally of Damaris Masham , but quarrelled with Delarivier Manley . She found both a patron and a friend in Sarah, Lady Piers (who wrote poetry herself). She...
Friends, Associates John Locke
JL corresponded on philosophical topics with several women interested in the subject: with Elizabeth Burnet , the young Catharine Trotter , and most importantly with Damaris Cudworth, later Lady Masham . His friendship with Masham...
Literary responses May Drummond
From the first, however, MD 's preaching was polarizing, attracting not only praise but also criticism more hostile than Cookworthy's. She was blamed for her social manner, for being visibly of a higher rank than...
Literary responses Catharine Trotter
Her defence brought praise from Locke himself (of the strength and clarity of her reasoning), a gift of books, and the opening of an actual correspondence. It brought her, too, warm praise from John Toland
Textual Features Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
EOB writes in terms of a women's tradition: for instance, she praises Barbauld for praising Elizabeth Rowe . She makes confident judgements and attributions (she is sure that Lady Pakington is the real author of...
Wealth and Poverty Catharine Trotter
The religious writer and diarist Elizabeth Burnet , who had already discussed CT 's writing with John Locke , wrote to ask him to contribute four or five guineas for what sounds like a subscription for Trotter.
Locke, John. The Correspondence of John Locke. Editor De Beer, Esmond Samuel, Clarendon, 1976–1989, 8 vols.
7: 702

Timeline

By 6 April 1742: An Account of the Conduct of Sarah Duchess...

Women writers item

By 6 April 1742

An Account of the Conduct of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, a political apologia and attack on her enemies composed by her over almost forty years with various helpers, appeared a few weeks after Prime...

Texts

Burnet, Elizabeth. A Method of Devotion. Joseph Downing, C. Smith, A. Barker, 1708.
Burnet, Elizabeth. A Method of Devotion. Second edition, Joseph Downing, C. Smith and A. Barker, 1709.
Goodwyn, Timothy et al. “An Account of the Life and Character of the Author”. A Method of Devotion: or Rules for Holy & Devout Living, with Prayers on Several Occasions, and Advices and Devotions for the Holy Sacrament, Joseph Downing, C. Smith, and A. Barker, 1709, p. iii - xxxii.
Burnet, Elizabeth. “journals and papers”. Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. D. 1092, folios 111–203.