Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Burnett, John (1764?-1810)
BURNETT, JOHN (1764?–1810), Scotch lawyer, was the son of William Burnett, procurator-at-law in Aberdeen, where he was born about 1764. He was admitted advocate at Edinburgh on 10 Dec. 1785. In 1792 he was appointed advocate-depute, and in October 1803 sheriff of Haddingtonshire. In April 1810 he became judge-admiral of Scotland. He was also for some time counsel for the city of Aberdeen. He died on 8 Dec. 1810, while his work on the ‘Criminal Law of Scotland’ was passing through the press. It was published in 1811. Though in certain respects imperfect and misleading, it is a work of great merit, the more especially that it is one of the earliest attempts to form a satisfactory collection of decisions in criminal cases.
[Anderson's Scottish Nation; Catalogue of the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.]