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William Burnet (March 1687/8〔 – 7 September 1729) was a British civil servant and colonial administrator who served as governor of New York and New Jersey (1720–1728) and Massachusetts and New Hampshire (1728–1729). Born into a position of privilege (his godfather became William III of England not long after his birth, and his father Gilbert Burnet was later Bishop of Salisbury), Burnet was well educated, tutored among others by Isaac Newton. Active for most of his life in intellectual pursuits (he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1705/6), he occupied no posts of importance until financial considerations and political connections brought him the governorships of New York and New Jersey. His tenure in New Jersey was without major controversies, although he set a precedent there for accepting what were effectively bribes in exchange for his assent to legislation. In New York he sought unsuccessfully to end the fur trade between Albany and Montreal in order to implement a colonial policy preferring direct trade with the Native Americans in central North America. His New York rule was marked by an increase in political divisions between land owners (with whom Burnet sided) and merchants. After the death of King George I, King George II appointed Burnet governor of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Although his New Hampshire tenure was inconsequential, he engaged in a nasty dispute with the Massachusetts assembly over the issue of his salary, holding the legislative body in session for six months and relocating it away from Boston. The dispute held up other colonial business, and was ongoing in September 1729 when Burnet died; his death was apparently caused by illness contracted after his carriage overturned and dumped him in water. ==Early life== William Burnet was born in The Hague, a leading city of the Dutch Republic, in March 1687/8.〔In the Julian calendar, then in use in England and its colonies, the year began on 25 March. To avoid confusion with dates in the Gregorian calendar, then in use in other parts of Europe, dates between January and March were often written with both years. Dates in this article are in the Julian calendar unless otherwise noted.〕 He was the first child of Mary (Scott) Burnet and Gilbert Burnet, the leading theologian in the Dutch court of William, Prince of Orange (who was Burnet's godfather) and his wife Mary. Mary Scott Burnet was the heiress of a Scottish family which had settled in the Netherlands and acquired great wealth: her marriage to Gilbert however was generally agreed not to be for money, but a genuine love match. There were six younger children, of whom four survived infancy. Later in 1688 William led an army across the English Channel in the Glorious Revolution, and William and Mary ascended to the English throne as corulers. Burnet's father gave the coronation sermon, was later elevated to Bishop of Salisbury, and was an ongoing influence in the English court during King William's reign.〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=2012-09-24 )〕 He fell out of favour when Queen Anne took the throne in 1702. Burnet's mother died of smallpox in 1698; in accordance with her dying request his father two years later remarried her close friend Elizabeth Blake, who proved a kindly stepmother to William and his siblings. All of them were devoted to Gilbert, "the best of fathers". On Gilbert's death in 1715 William inherited one third of the estate, which given his mother's wealth, must have been considerable. Burnet was an excellent but undisciplined scholar. He entered Oxford at the age of 13, but was dismissed for disciplinary reasons. His later education came from private tutoring (including Isaac Newton as a tutor), and he was ultimately admitted to the bar. In 1712 he married Mary, the daughter of George Stanhope, the Dean of Canterbury. They had one child, a boy, before she died in 1717.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William Burnet (colonial administrator)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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