The family of Burnett of Leys, with collateral - Electric Scotland

146
THE FAMILY OF BURNETT OF LEYS.
Aberdeen, he proceeded to Groningen, where he spent three years
studying law. He returned to this country in 1736, and was admitted
to the Scottish bar in 1737, where he soon acquired a great reputation.
He took a prominent part in the great Douglas Cause. He was appointed
Sheriff of Kincardineshire, and in 1767 he was raised to the Bench,
taking the title of Lord Monboddo. He was an eminent lawyer, and
a man of varied accomplishments ; and in his treatise " On the Origin
and Progress of Language" he may be said to have anticipated the
speculations of Darwin.
Many notices exist giving an account of Lord Monboddo. Soon
after his death in 1799, a biographical account of him appeared in the
Scots Magazine for November of that year. Other references to Lord
Monboddo and his works are given in footnote.* There is a portrait of
him in the great window, Mitchell Hall, Marischal College.
Lord Monboddo married Elizabeth Farquharson, a relative of
the Earl Marischal (of what family is not stated), and by her had one
son and two daughters
I. ARTHUR, predeceased his father at the age of 11 years (1763-74).
I. HELEN BURNETT of Monboddo. She married Kirkpatrick Wil-
liamson, who assumed the name of Burnett, and died in 1833.
They had a family of three sons and four daughters
1. JAMES BURNETT BURNETT of Monboddo, of whom below.
2. JOHN, who died in India, unmarried.
3. ARTHUR, born 1797 ; a member of the Scottish bar, Sheriff
Substitute of Peebles ;
died 1877.
1. ELIZABETH, born 1781 ; married, 1808, Adam Cumine of
Rattray.
She died 1815, with issue.
2. GRACE, born 1794; died, unmarried, 1864.
3. MARGARET, born 1798 ; died unmarried.
4. HELEN, died unmarried.
*Tytlcr's Memoirs of Lord Kames (1814), i., 243-50. Kerr's Memoirs of William Smellie
1811), i., 409-27 ; ii., 418. Kay's Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings (1842), i., 18-21,
350 ; ii., 20, 368, 436, 438. Boswell's Life of Johnson (Croker's edit., 1831), ii., 311-17, et pas.
Kncyrlnpaoli.i Hritannica (9th edit.), xvi., 179. Brunton and Haig's Senators of the College of
Justice (1833), pp. 531-3. Chambers's Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (1868),
i., 248-50. Chalmers's Hi,, graphical Diet. (1813), vii., 389-93. Dictionary of National
Biography. Professor ,Knight's Lord Monboddo, with portraits, 1900.