James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (bap. 1714 d. 1799)

Scottish judge and philosopher. Educated by private tutors and at King’s College, Aberdeen, and in Groningen; passed the Scottish civil law examination and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates, 1837. Curator of the Advocates’ Library, 1751–6; sheriff of Kincardineshire, 1860; raised to the bench as an ordinary lord of session, 1867. Important figure in the Scottish enlightenment and author of Of the origin and progress of language (1773–92) and Antient metaphysics (1779–99).