ANNET, PETER. - English Deist, b. at Liverpool in 1693, d. in London in 1769; a vehement but confused polemicist. The newspaper which he founded in 1761, but of which only nine issues appeared, *The Free Enquirer*,
was condemned by the Anglican authorities and suppressed as blasphemous for its attacks on the historical narratives of the Old Testament, which earned him imprisonment and the pillory. His doctrines derive from the old schools of English deism and in certain respects anticipate the naturalism of Rousseau. The main ones are collected in *Collection des tracts d'un libre penseur connu comme ayant souffert pour ses opinions*, undated, where he ultimately maintains that the great religious duty consists in free thought. He also devised a new system of shorthand, and he is credited with a polemical writing in defence of George II that is said to have inspired Voltaire’s *Saul*.