ANNET, PETER. - English deist, b. at Liverpool in 1693, d. in London in 1769; a vehement but confused polemicist. The journal he founded in 1761, of which, however, only nine issues appeared, The Free Enquirer,
was condemned by the Anglican authorities and suppressed as blasphemous because of its attacks on the historical narratives of the Old Testament, which brought him imprisonment and the pillory. His doctrines derive from the older schools of English deism and in certain respects anticipate Rousseau’s naturalism. The principal ones are collected in Collection des tracts d'un libre penseur connu comme ayant souffert pour ses opinions, n. d., where he ultimately maintains that the great religious duty consists in free thought. A. invented a new system of shorthand, and is credited with a polemical work in defence of Giorgio II which is said to have inspired Voltaire’s « Saul ».