Andrew Burnaby was born in Asfordby, Leicestershire, in 1732. He attended Westminster School and Queens' College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1756 and served as a chaplain to the British community in Livorno, Italy, from 1762 to 1767. He became the vicar of Greenwich in 1769 and archdeacon of Leicester in 1786. In 1804, Burnaby published an account of his travels through Corsica. He died in Blackheath, England, in 1812.