Peerage; and follow up on the life of; Sir Robert, and Lady Matilda Burnett of Leys

Arriving back in Scotland, Sir Robert Burnett assumed the life of a country gentleman. He would die only a few years after receiving full compensation for Rancho Centinela from Daniel Freeman, and left no male heir; his beloved son James, dying in 1874, one year after Sir Robert and Lady Matilda returned.

As his badge of office as Royal Forester of Drum, Alexander was given the Horn of Leys.

On the lands to the north of the village of Banchory, there lay a stretch of shallow water known as the Loch of Banchory or the Loch of Leys. In the center of the loch was a crannog (artificial island), which had been a place of refuge for centuries. For the first 200 years of the Burnetts’ residence in the area, this crannog provided the site for the family’s principal stronghold. The loch is now drained and nothing remains but the island mound. The crannog may be deserted but the memory of the Burnetts’ first home is kept alive in the traditional Scots territorial designation of the head of the family as "Burnett of Leys".

The crannog provided the Burnetts with security, and since the family was not politically ambitious, life was peaceful on the Loch of Leys. 

The family spent most of its time in the pursuit of wealth and land, through judicious marriages and friendly relations with the church, in particular the Abbey of Arbroath, whose land covered much of the territory of Kincardineshire adjoining the Burnett estates. The Burnetts did not seem to have played much of a role in national affairs, preferring to keep their estates (and their lives) in hand.

However, the 4th Laird, Robert, became Deputy Sheriff of Kincardineshire and is believed to have fought for the King against the island rebels in one of the bloodiest and most savage encounters in Scottish history (The Battle of Harlaw Hill in July 1411).  His son, Alexander, was rewarded with Banchory as a free barony by fighting for James I (who was murdered three months later).

In 1543 a marriage was arranged between the 9th Laird, another Alexander, and Janet Hamilton, the natural daughter of Canon Hamilton of the Abbey of Arbroath. As her dowry Janet brought a substantial amount of church lands. In later years, much land was added to Janet’s dowry through arranged marriages and outright gifts. In 1560 Alexander and Janet decided that a better home was needed for their family, so the building of Crathes Castle began (taking 40 years). In 1563 Alexander fought for Mary, Queen of Scots, at the Battle of Corrichie.
Alexander’s son and grandson both died in quick succession after him, so his great-grandson, also named Alexander, succeeded to the lands and was finally able to complete Crathes Castle. This Alexander was a most benevolent man who built a new church in Banchory and who gave much money to the poor.

The next Laird, Thomas, succeeded his father in 1619 and was knighted by James VI. Charles I later made him a Baronet of Nova Scotia. Thomas’ son had died as a child, so his grandson, another Alexander, was his successor. This Alexander was one of the few Burnett "black sheep". He was described at the age of sixteen as being "dissolute and naughty" and had managed to father at least 6 children by the time of his death at age 26.The 3rd Baronet, Sir Thomas, who with his wife Margaret produced 21 children in 22 years, was a member of the Scottish Parliament and after the Act of Union with England in 1707 was a member of the Westminster Parliament as well. Alexander, the 14th Laird and 4th Baronet, was mainly famous for refusing to join either of the Jacobite Risings of 1715 and 1745. (An interesting sidebar in regards to the "Forty-Five" is that Prince Charles Edward Stuart [Bonnie Prince Charlie] was sometimes referred to in cipher as "Mr. Burnett" during his time in Scotland). About 1746, a splinter of rock killed the 4th Baronet’s son during the draining of the Loch of Leys. After that tragedy, Alexander developed a "boodie fear of beasties". In 1759, the 5th Baronet died unmarried and a seven-year battle between two rival Burnett cousins ensued. In the end, Thomas Burnett of Criggie won the legal battle for the title and Crathes Castle. His son Robert fought against the "rebels" in the American Revolutionary War and later became 7th Baronet. Three of Robert’s sons succeeded to the title and all three died unmarried.

Meanwhile, the heir to the title and the castle, Sir Robert, had immigrated to California where he was an extremely successful rancher. (He once owned half of the site of what was to become the city of Los Angeles). After marrying a New York woman, he returned to Crathes to become 11th Baronet. His son James had preceded him in death, so Sir Robert’s brother, Colonel Thomas, succeeded as 12th Baronet.

Colonel Thomas’ son Major General Sir James Lauderdale Gilbert Burnett of Leys became the 13th Baronet and was at one time the Commander of the Gordon Highlanders Regiment of the British Army. He was the last in residence at Crathes Castle.

The 13th Baronet’s two sons, Alexander and Roger, both died as young men, so the estate passed through his daughter Elizabeth to her son James Cecil, who was obliged to change his surname to Burnett in order to succeed to the estate. The title of Baronet passes only through the male line, so the heir to the Baronetcy of Burnett of Leys is Alexander William Burnett Ramsay, who lives in Australia.

In 1952, the 13th Baronet gave Crathes Castle and a portion of the estate to the Scottish people, where it remains under the care of the National Trust for Scotland.

The current Laird, James Comyn Amherst Burnett of Leys and his family reside in the House of Crathes, a short distance from the Castle. His official title is "Representer of the House and Chief of the Name of Burnett of Leys"

The Burnett of Leys family (around 1993)

“Alterius Non Sit Qui Suus Esse Potest” (Let Him Not Be Another’s Who Can Be His Own).         SIR THOMAS BURNETT OF LEYS, First Baron of Leys, 1619-1653. Sir Robert was the 11th Baron of Leys. (Courtesy, Burnett Family Archive, Scotland.)

HENRY LAWRENCE  BURNETT Brigadier-General, Union Army, 1863. (Complements, Ancestry. COM) On the surface, the wedding of Sir Robert Burnett to an American New Yorker; Matilda Murphy, may seem unusual. In the 1850’s it was rare to see a Scottish Laird take an American wife.

Henry L. Burnett, Union soldier and lawyer, was the son of Henry and Nancy Jones Burnett.  He was born at Youngstown, Ohio, December 26th, 1838. The Burnett family -- or Burnet, as it has been frequently spelled -- is one of the oldest and most honorable in the United States. More than one of it's family members  have occupied positions of great importance in the history of the country. Burnett was appointed to the Lincoln Assassination Court

A copy of General Burnett's memoirs on the Lincoln assassination begins, "I was serving with my regiment, the 2nd Ohio Cavalry along the Cumberland in Southern Kentucky in the latter part of the year 1863, when the Judge Advocate on the staff of General Burnside, Major J. Madison Curtis (brother-in-law of the late Senator Douglas), committed an offense for which charges were preferred against him. General Burnside sent inquiries to the front for some officer who was a lawyer, and who could be recommended as capable of trying his Judge Advocate. I was recommended, and ordered back to Cincinnati, where General Burnside's headquarters then were, as commander of the Department of the Ohio. "

In September 1864, Burnett was ordered to Indiana to act as Judge Advocate of the court detailed to try the members of the "Knights of the Golden Circle" or "Sons of Liberty."  Shortly thereafter, he received a dispatch from the Secretary of War, directing him to report in person immediately to the War Department to aid in the examinations respecting the murder of President Lincoln and the attempted assassination of Mr. Seward.

BURNETT MEMOIR. "The execution of the assassins was the closing scene of the greatest tragedy in our history. The assassination removed from the stage of life the greatest figure of the century." Note: On July 7, 1865, forty-two-year-old Mary Surratt, an attractive, dark-haired widow, was hanged on the gallows at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary in Washington along with three others convicted of complicity in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. (Complements, Ancestry. COM).

LINCOLN ASSISINATION MILITARY COURT. The detail of the “Court was as follows: Maj/Gen. David Hunter, Maj/Gen. Lewis Wallace, Brev Maj/Gen. Augustus V. Kautz, Brig/Gen. Albion P. Howe, Brig/Gen. Albert S. Foster, Brig/Gen. T.M. Harris, Brev Brig/Gen. James A. Ekin, Col. C.H. Tompkins, Lt/Col. David T. Clendenin.