Alexander (Burnet) Burnett of Leys (1540 - bef. 1578)

Born 1540 in Leys, Kincardineshire, Scotland

Ancestors

Husband of Katherine (Arbuthnot) Burnett — married 1560 in St Nicholas Parish, Aberdeenshire, , Scotland

Descendants

Died before May 1578 before age 38 in Leys, Kincardineshire, Scotland

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Confusion: There is some confusion in web material regarding the occupation of Aberdeen, by Montrose in 1644, and some suggest this person was involved. This is incorrect. This Alexander Burnet died in1578 and the Lord of Leys, Thomas Burnet, did not participate at Aberdeen. The person involved at Aberdeen in 1644 was Alexander Burnet of Schethokisley, a junior line of Leys.^[1] The confusion likely arising as all Burnets killed at the engagement appear to have been buried under the coat armour of Leys.

Biography

Alexander Burnet was born the son and heir of John Burnet and Elizabeth Lumsden, daughter of John Lumsden of Cushnie.

He was, as "Alexander Burnet of Canneglerocht," retoured before the Master of Marischal in the old castle of Kincardine as heir to John Burnet, his father, in the barony of Leys, on 3rd October 1575, and had sasine on Chancery Precept on 5th November following (1576).^[2]

In 1577 he made up titles on Precept of Clare Constat from John, Commendator of Arbroath, to the lands held from that Abbey,

He died before May 1578.^[3]

When he died, Crathes Castle had been under construction for 25 years. 15 years later the castle was completed by his son Alexander, 12th of Leys. According to his son Duncan, one of his ambitions was that his sons be men of learning and culture.

Family

He married his cousin, Katherine Arbuthnot, daughter of Robert Arbuthnot of Pitcarlies.^[4]. Due to later family lands, his lineage, although not complete, appears in the Visitation for Norfolk, 1613, ^[5] and his children are noticed. He also appears in the 1634 Visitations of Essex.^[6]

His children were:^[7]

• Alexander Burnet, his eldest son and heir. Likely born c. 1560.
• Robert Burnet, alluded to as a "divine" in a letter of his brother, Duncan Burnet, given in the Appendix to the family source material.
• Thomas Burnet, later M.A. of Cambridge, a physician of eminence, practising at Braintree in Essex at the time of the Visitation of 1634.^[8] He married Jane, daughter of John Foys of London, and had two sons, Thomas, born 1612, and Alexander; and a daughter, Frances, who married the Rev. Thomas Templer, rector of Weston, Northamptonshire. Note that the Visitation incorrectly states that her name was Coys and that she had married Duncan. The error is discussed in note to the family historian's material.^[9]
• Gilbert Burnet, Professor of Philosophy at Basle, Switzerland, afterwards at Montauban, France. He was, according to Middleton's Learned Men and Writers [of Aberdeen], in such esteem that a National Synod of the Protestants in France appointed his philosophical writings to be printed at the expense of the clergy ; but, he dying before his MSS. was concluded, only his book of Ethics was printed. His "Ethicae Dissertationes, quibus perfecta et soluta philosophies moralis idea modo accuratissime exhibetur," forms a small octavo volume, printed at Leyden in 1649. In the Visitation pedigree of Norfolk he is said to have had no issue^[10] although the Visitation occurred when he was young.
• Duncan Burnet, like Thomas, became a physician and practised at Norwich; thus the Visitation of Norfolk. He married Jane, daughter of Robert Marsham of Little Melton, Co. Norfolk, appearing as such in the Visitation of Norfolk.^[11] In the Visitation pedigree of 1613 his arms are impaled with those of his wife and he had at that date had issue, Robert, who had died young, and Mary, there called his "sole daughter and heir." Mary had been born on "Michaelmas Day 1609" or 29 Sep 1609. He does however have another son, Thomas, who must have been born shortly after the Visitation. He, Thomas, appears on Aberdeen Burgh Records on the 29th September 1629, "Thomas Burnet, filius legitimus vcnerabilis viri magistri Duncani Burnet, medicinse doctoris, admissus fuit in liberum burgensem et fratrem gilde" when he becomes a Burgess of the city. The arms of this Thomas, as Thomas Burnet of Wood Balling, Co. Norfolk, appear on 3 June 1640, exemplified by William Le Neve, Clarenceux, in the books of the English College of Arms, with the middle holly leaf charged with an annulet, for difference, and the usual crest.
• John Burnet, he seems to have followed a different pathway and he remains in Scotland. His name occurs in the Privy Council Records in 1593 as cautioner, along with his brother Leys, that Alexander Gordon of Lesmoir should not reset with the Earl of Huntly or the murderers of the Earl of Moray. He married (contract at Crathes, dated 3O April 1603) Helen Wood, widow of Alexander Cumyn of Culter. They had a son, Alexander, later noticed as Alexander Burnet in Edinburgh. This Alexander, in 1642, under the designation of "minister of God's word at the Kirk of Buckingham Fence in the County of Norfolk in England," made up his title by Precept of Clare Constat from his cousin, Sir Thomas Burnet of Leys, as superior of Kilduthie, which he thereupon resigned to Sir Thomas.
• Janet Burnet, married (contract dated 10 February 1578-9 (modern calendar 1579)) Gilbert Keith of Auquhorsk.
• Margaret Burnet, unmarried in 1613.
• Elizabeth Burnet, married her cousin, Master Gilbert Skene, son and heir-apparent of Master James Skene of Wester Corse and Ramore (charter to him at Crathes, dated I5 December 1592).

Naming of family lines

It is from this time that lines of the family adopt the more English spelling of Burnet and appear as Burnett.

Sources

1. ↑ Extracts from the Council register of the burgh of Aberdeen Vol 2, page 28
2. ↑ The family of Burnett of Leys, with collateral branches; page 29
3. ↑ The family of Burnett of Leys, with collateral branches; page 29
4. ↑ The family of Burnett of Leys, with collateral branches; page 29
5. ↑ Visitation for Norfolk 1613
6. ↑ Visitations of Essex 1634
7. ↑ The family of Burnett of Leys, with collateral branches; page 30
8. ↑ Visitations of Essex 1634
9. ↑ The family of Burnett of Leys, with collateral branches; page 30, notes
10. ↑ Visitation of Norfolk
11. ↑ Visitation of Norfolk

See also:

• The family of Burnett of Leys, with collateral branches from the mss. of the late George Burnett, by Burnett, George, 1822-1890, Published 1901

• Extracts from the Council register of the burgh of Aberdeen. [Edited by John Stuart]; Aberdeen; 1871; Volume 2. archive.org

• The visitacion [i.e., visitation] of Norfolk, made and taken by William Hervey, Clarencieux King of Arms, anno 1563, enlarged with another visitacion [sic] made by Clarenceux Cook; archive.org

• The visitations of Essex by Hawley, 1552; Hervey, 1558; Cooke, 1570; Raven, 1612; and Owen and Lilly, 1634 : to which are added miscellaneous Essex pedigrees from various Harleian manuscripts, and an appendix containing Berry's Essex pedigrees v.13 [ https://archive.org/details/visitationsofess13metc archive.org]