Lady Margaret Burnet (''née'' Kennedy; died May, 1685) was the wife of Bishop Gilbert Burnet.

Life

Lady Margaret was the second and last daughter of

John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassilis John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassilis, PC (died April 1668) was a Scottish peer, the grandson of Gilbert Kennedy, 4th Earl of Cassilis, and nephew of John Kennedy, 5th Earl of Cassilis. He succeeded to the titles of 8th Lord Kennedy and 6th Earl ...

and his first wife, Lady Jean Hamilton, daughter of

Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington (1563 – 29 May 1637), designated before his peerage as 'of Drumcarny, Monkland, and Binning', was a Scottish administrator, Lord Advocate, judge, and Lord Lieutenant of Haddingtonshire. Family The son ...

. She was well-regarded as a political advisor. King Charles II spoke of her favourably and John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale referred to her in correspondence as "wife". Their letters were discovered and published in 1828. She was the first wife of Gilbert Burnet, the eminent Whig historian and later

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The see is in the City of Salisbury where the bishop's seat ...

. They married in 1672 or 1673 in secret as there was a large difference in both their ages and their wealth. He was concerned that observers might speculate that he had married Margaret primarily for her wealth. For this reason, he arranged for what is now called a

prenuptial agreement A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement (commonly referred to as a prenup), is a written contract entered into by a couple prior to marriage or a civil union that enables them to select and control many of the leg ...

where he renounced all claims to her money. It has been speculated that she married on the rebound, after she discovered that Lauderdale's first wife, Lady Anne Home, had died and that he had remarried his formidable second wife

Lady Elizabeth Murray Lady Elizabeth Mary Finch-Hatton (née Lady Elizabeth Mary Murray; 18 May 1760 – 1 June 1825) was a British aristocrat and the subject of a notable painting, once thought to be by Johann Zoffany, now attributed to David Martin. Biography ...

. After the fact of her marriage became well known she moved to London and lived with Burnet. In the 1680s she lost her memory and all recall of facts and people. Margaret died at the end of May 1685.Martin Greig, ‘Burnet, Lady Margaret (d. 1685)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 5 Aug 2014
/ref> Burnet went on to marry Mary Scott, a wealthy Dutch heiress of Scots descent, with whom he had seven children. She died in 1698. He then married Elizabeth Blake, a noted writer on religious issues, who died in 1709.Martin Greig, ‘Burnet, Gilbert (1643–1715)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 201
accessed 6 Aug 2014
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnet, Margaret 1685 deaths Margaret Daughters of Scottish earls Year of birth unknown