"W ^ Scs. scz.zz •' \ .^ THE FAMILY OF BURNETT OF LEYS Only 5^j Copies printed. No :^ Uhc jfamtl^ of Burnett of Xe^e WITH COLLATERAL BRANCHES FROM THE MSS. OF THE LATE GEORGE BURNETT, LL.D. Lyon King of Arms COLONEL JAMES ALLARDYCE, LL.D. ABERDEEN i^rintet) for t|)e ijSeto ^palbing Club PRINTED BY MILNE AND HUTCHISON ABERDEEN :::: : : Zbc IRcw SpalMng Club. Foiimled nth November, i8Sb. patron : HIS MAJESTY THE KING. OIPIPICE SE^E-EiaS :foe. X900-01. ptc9(^ent THE EARL OF ABERDEEN, G.C.M.G., LL.D. IDiccsprcsftcnts The Doke of Richmond and Gordon, K.G., The Lord Forbes. D.C.L., LL.D. The Lord .Saltoun. The Duke of Fife, K.T. The Lord Provost of Aberdeen. The Marquis of Huntly, LL.D. Sir John F. Clark, Bart., of Tillypronie, LL.D. The Earl of Erroll, K.T., LL.D. Sir George Reid, P.R.S.A., LL.D. The Earl of Strathmore. Colonel James Allardyce of Culquoich, LL.D. The Earl of Southesk, K.T., LL.D. James A. Campbell of Stracathro, M.P., LL.D. The Earl of Kintore, G.C.M.G., LL.D. William Ferguson of Kinmundy, LL.D. The Earl of Rosebery, K.G., K.T., LL.D. Emeritus Professor David Masson, LL.D. ©cMnarv flficmbcrs of Council W. Bruce Bannerman, Croydon. Lt. -Colonel William Johnston of Newton Dee, M.D. John Bulloch, Aberdeen. J. F. Kellas Johnstone, London. Sir Thomas Burnett, Bart., of Leys. The Rev. William Forbes Leith, S.J., Selkirk. The Right Rev. Bishop Chisholm, D.D., LL.D. David Littlejohn, Sheriff'-Clerk, Aberdeen. Aberdeen. Peter Duguid-M'Combie of Easter Skene. The Rev. Professor James Cooper, D. D. , Glasgow. The Rev. John G. Michie, Dinnet. Patrick Cooper, Advocate, Aberdeen. Alexander M. Munro, Aberdeen. William Cramond, LL.D., Cullen. Robert S. Rait, Oxford. Peter M. Cran, City Chamberlain, Aberdeen. Alexander Ramsay, LL.D., Banff. The Rev. J. Myers Danson, D.D., Aberdeen. Alexander W. Robertson, Aberdeen. Professor W. L. Davidson, LL.D., Aberdeen. John Forbes Robertson, London. William Dunn of Murtle. I The Rev. James Smith, B.D., Aberdeen. John Philip Edmond, Haigh. Sir David Stewart of Banchory, LL.D. James Ferguson, Sheriff' of Argyll. C. Sanford Terry, University of Aberdeen. Alexander Forbes, Aberdeen. Alexander Walker, LL.D., Aberdeen. Alexander M. Gordon of Newton. George Walker, Aberdeen. Henry Wolrige-Gordon of Esslemont. Robert Walker, University of Aberdeen. John A. Henderson, Aberdeen. John Forbes White, LL.D., Dundee. Sir William Henderson, LL.D., Aberdeen. Professor John Dove Wilson, LL.D., Aberdeen. Colonel Thomas Innes of Learney, LL.D. Robert M. Wilson, M.D., Old Deer. Scccctars Peter John Anderson, University Library, Aberdeen. Uceaeucer Farquharson Taylor Garden, i8 Golden Square, Aberdeen. BuMtors William Milne, C.A., Aberdeen; Andrew Davidson, C.A., Aberdeen. : PREFACE. ONE of the first proposals of the Council of the New Spalding Club was to undertake the issue of a series of histories of ancient northern families, and it was hoped the " Memorials of the Family of Skene of Skene," the first volume issued by the Club, would shortly after be followed by " The Family of Burnett of Leys." In the second report of the Editorial Committee, printed in the volume above referred to, the following statement appeared "Mr. George Burnett, LL. D., Lyon King of Arms, has con- sented to compile for the Club a volume on the ancient baronial family of Burnett of Leys, amplified and illustrated by materials of great interest existing in this country and on the Continent. Sir Robert Burnett, in the most liberal and gratifying manner, has consented to give the Lyon unreserved access to his family papers. At the hands of the last-named gentleman as Editor, we need scarcely point out that we may look for a work peculiarly acceptable to our members." Dr. Burnett intimated to the Secretary in May, 1887, that he would require at least three years to complete the work. He lost no time in proceeding with his researches into the history of the family—he had already collected a good deal of material suitable for the purpose. He selected many documents from the Crathes Charter Chest, which were carefully copied by the late Mr. James Anderson, M.A. These form a large part of the Appendix of the volume. The great mass of memoranda and notes of searches made by Dr. Burnett show how thoroughly he had gone into a subject which was after his own heart. Unfortunately he was unable fully to utilize the data he had collected, and the history is incomplete. To the great regret of the Council of the Club, Dr. Burnett fell into bad health long before the time he had stipulated for had expired. He had not nearly completed the work he had evidently sketched out in his own mind—he left no notes as to his intentions—and his untimely death, on the 23rd January, 1890, was deplored as a heavy loss, not only by his many friends, but by all the members of the Club. His MS. was made over to the Club, for whose use it had been undertaken, and it was hoped that ere long an Editor would be found for it. After ten years, as no one was forth- coming, I consented, with no little diffidence, to edit the papers. The task has turned out to be a much more difficult one, and it has occupied more time, than I could have anticipated. On careful examination it became evident that the MS. was not in the state in which Dr. Burnett would have sent it to the printer. Several branches of the family had not been reached, for no extended notes regarding these were to be found. It was, however, considered desirable that what had been written out by him should be printed, and I consented to become the Editor. The materials existing on the Continent, referred to in the report quoted above. Dr. Burnett had decided not to examine —he meant to restrict himself to what was available in the family records. In submitting to the members of the Club the history of the ancient family from which the late Lyon was descended, and as nearly as possible just as he left it, it has seemed to me to be fitting that a short notice of that most excellent and accomplished man should appear in the Preface of a work to which, had he lived, he would have done every justice ; and, at — : my request, Sir James Balfour Paul, Lyon King of Arms, who succeeded Dr. George Burnett in that office, has most kindly contributed the following memoir. It will be read with much interest : "George Burnett was born in 1822, and was admitted a member of the Scottish Bar in 1845. The Parliament House, during the eighteen years he walked its boards, was the resort of many men whose names are intimately connected with Scottish history and literature. When Burnett first joined the Bar, Aytoun had just been made Professor of Rhetoric in the University of Edinburgh, Cosmo Innes in the year following was elected to the Chair of Constitutional History in the same University, Hill Burton was publishing his Life and Corres- pondence of Hume, and giving evidence of that industry and ability which afterwards made him famous as a historian. Not only so, the systematic study of records and of family history was ' in the air.' Joseph Robertson, an Aberdeenshire man like Burnett himself, had founded the Spalding Club for illustrating the history of the north-east counties, a task in which he was ably seconded by another Aberdeenshire man who was also to make a name for himself as a Record scholar, John Stuart David Laing, the indefatigable secretary of the Bannatyne Club, was constantly adding to our knowledge of Scotland and its people from the deep stores of his learning. William Fraser, with whom Burnett was destined often to cross swords in after life, had not yet begun to write his series of histories of the noble families of Scotland. • " It will be understood that in conditions like these a young man with a taste for historical research was in no want of encouragement—and there can be no doubt that the bent of Burnett's mind was always in that direction. History does not record whether his fee-book, during the years in 2 which he attended the Parliament House, ever showed any substantial total at the end of the session. Probably it did not : to earn the reputation of being literary, and to be thought capable of reading anything beyond the works of the Institu- tional writers and the authorised reports is fatal to a man's hopes of practice at the Bar, except in some very exceptional cases, like that of Jeffrey. Besides, Burnett had not the forensic aptitude : he was not of that smart, ready-witted, agile-minded and thick-skinned type to which the successful counsel belongs. He could argue strongly and hit hard when occasion arose, but to do it effectually he required to have a pen in his hand, and to arrange his thoughts in the quietness of his study. But the years which he spent in the Parliament House were by no means wasted. It would take a duller man than Burnett was to fail to appreciate the immense advantages which lay at his hand in the shape of the Advocates' Library. And so he worked on quietly and steadily, a shy and studious man, not much given perhaps to partaking in much of that rather boisterous humour which is characteristic of the junior bar, but esteemed by his contemporaries for his gentle nature and unassuming manner.