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Difino
| • | James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714 - May 26, 1799) was a Scottish judge, scholar and eccentric.
James Burnett was born in 1714 at Monboddo in Kincardineshire, Scotland. After his primary educations at the parish school of Laurencekirk, he studied at Marischal College, Aberdeen where he graduated 1729, at Edinburgh University and the University of Groningen. At Edinburgh he graduated at law and was admitted to Scottish Bar in 1737. 1767 he became a Lord of Session and adopted a title based on his father's estate in Monboddo.
Burnett married Grace Farquharson and they had two boys and a girl before Grace died. Burnett's daughter Elizabeth Burnett was an Edinburgh celebrity. Unfortunately she died of consumption at the age of 25. Burnett's friend Robert Burns wrote a elegy for her.
Burnett was also eccentric. One tale tells how, when he came out of court and noticed it was raining, he put only his wig into his sedan chair and walked home. He claimed to follow practices of ancient Greeks to keep his body in good physical condition. He preferred to journey on horseback instead of in carriage, even between Edinburgh and London. Because of a decision against him about a value of a horse, he refused to sit on the Bench with other judges but sat underneath with the court clerks.
Burnett organized "learned suppers" at his house in St John Street, where he discussed and lectured about his theories. Local intellectuals were invited to attend attic repasts.
In his books Burnett wrote about his philosophical views. His main writings include The Origin and Progress of Language that argues that mankind had shed their primeval tails and is related to orangutans. In Antient Metaphysics, Burnett claimed that man is gradually elevating himself from the animal condition to a state in which mind acts independently of the body. He also professed a belief that human babies are born with tails and that midwives cut them off at birth. Contemporary opinion considered his views strange but later commentators have seen him preceding the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin.
When Burnett was visiting the King's Court in London in 1787, part of the ceiling of the courtroom started to collapse. P
Source: [wikipedia: james burnett, lord monboddo]
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