Born April 14, 1788, in Newark, New Jersey, David Gouverneur Burnett was orphaned early in life and largely raised by his half-brothers. Young Burnett studied law and lived in Ohio and Louisiana before obtaining an empresario grant to settle a large tract of land near Nacogdoches, Texas. After an unsuccessful attempt to attract settlers, Burnett sold the rights to the land grant and used his earnings to build a sawmill on the San Jacinto River. By 1835 he was involved in revolutionary politics, expressing distaste for the dictatorial Mexican regime but initially opposing Texas independence. He attended the Convention of 1836, however, as a non-delegate, and his status as an outsider prompted the delegation to elect him ad interim president of the new Republic of Texas.

Burnet's short term lasted only until October of 1836 but was filled with rancor, including ill will between Burnet and Sam Houston. His sawmill was a failure, his law practice languished, and he was relegated to subsistence farming. By 1838, however, Burnet returned to public office and was elected to serve as vice president under Mirabeau Lamar. He subsequently ran for president in 1841 against Sam Houston, a race marked by strife and ending in Burnet's defeat. Burnet opposed Texas' annexation by the United States, but he served as the new State of Texas' secretary of state in 1846. Paradoxically he opposed secession but supported the southern cause, perhaps because his son fought for the Confederacy. The boy died in battle at Mobile in 1863. Burnet returned to Galveston, where he died virtually destitute on December 5, 1870.