| Administrative History | James Burnett, Lord Monboddo [1714-1799], lawyer, eccentric scholar, with theories on language and its origins, and pre-darwinian ideas on revolution. Lord of Session from 1767. The Burnett were a landed family who lived at Monboddo House, a mile from the parish church and school of Fordoun, where Beattie was schoolmaster from 1753 to 1758. Beattie said Lord Monboddo was one of his earliest patrons. Beattie later disagreed with much of his wiritngsabout the origins of language and of man |