A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists/Annet, Peter
Annet, Peter, Deist. B. 1693. Annet was one of the blunt, courageous men of the early eighteenth century who dared to provoke critical reflection on religion in an age of tyranny. He was a schoolmaster at Liverpool, but in 1739 he issued a pamphlet (Judging for Ourselves, or Freethinking the Great Duty of Religion) in which he boldly attacked Christianity. This was followed by others, and he lost his position. He came to London, and was for years one of the most outspoken spirits of the Robin Hood Society. In 1761 he founded a periodical, The Free Inquirer, and for its "blasphemies" he was, at the age of sixty-eight, condemned to the pillory and a year's hard labour. He afterwards kept a small school. Annet invented a system of shorthand. D. Jan. 18, 1769.