Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Palairet, John

by Gordon Goodwin

PALAIRET, JOHN (1697–1774), author, born in 1697 at Montauban, was agent of the States-General in London and French teacher to three of the children of George II (Prince William, afterwards Duke of Cumberland, and the Princesses Mary and Louisa). He died in the parish of St. James's, Westminster, in 1774 (Gent. Mag. 1774, p. 598). He had been twice married and left two sons—Elias John and David—and three daughters.

He wrote:

1. ‘Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre à bien lire et à bien orthographier,’ 12mo, London, 1721 (12th edition 1758; new edit. by Formey, 8vo, Berlin, 1755).
2. ‘Abrégé sur les Sciences et sur les Arts, en François & en Anglois,’ 8vo, London, 1736 (1740, 1741, 8th edit. revised by M. Du Mitand, 1788; 9th edit. 1792; an edition by Gottlob Ludwig Munter appeared at Brunswick and Hildesheim in 1746).
3. ‘A New Royal French Grammar,’ 8vo, London, 1738 (3rd edit., the Hague, 1738; 8th edit., London, 1769).
4. ‘Nouvelle Introduction à la Géographie Moderne,’ 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1754–5.
5. ‘Atlas Méthodique,’ fol. London, 1754 (53 maps).
6. ‘Recueil des Règles d'Arithmétique,’ 4to (Paris? 1755?).
7. ‘A Concise Description of the English and French Possessions in North America,’ 8vo, London, 1755 (in French, 1756).

His correspondence with Count Bentinck in 1750, 1758, and 1761, in French, is among the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum, Nos. 1727 and 1746. A letter from him to the Duke of Newcastle in 1757 is in Additional MS. 32871, f. 331.

[Aa's Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden; Nouvelle Biographie Universelle (Michaud); Nouvelle Biographie Générale; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. iv. 634; Will in P.C.C. 26, Alexander; Will of Elizabeth Palairet, widow of his son David, in P.C.C. 183, Major.]

G. G.