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

CHAPTER II.
D E K S I 1) K BURNETTS.
I. ALEXANDER BURNARD.
AS soon as Bruce was firmly established in his kingdom, he began
to recompense those adherents who had been faithful to him
in the struggle for independence, both from the forfeited estates of the
partisans of England and from what had hitherto been the Crown
possessions. In Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire there was a large
inversion in the ownership of land, and among other new settlers were
the ancestors of two families whose early history is, for a time, somewhat
intermingled, and who are remarkable as having continued down to the
it time to flourish side by side on the banks of the Dee, in posses-
sion to a large extent of the lands originally granted to them, namely,
William of Irvine and Alexander Burnard. The former came from the
south-west of Scotland, where his surname was a local one, and where a
separate branch of his family has continued to survive at Bonshaw in
Dumfrics-shirc. The latter, doubtless, was a member of the Farningdoun
family, perhaps one of the sons of the Roger, the custody of whose lands
had been committed to the Bishop of Glasgow ; but we know little of
tory, and can only judge by the extent of land granted him that
he had rendered considerable services to the King, in other ways besides
those about to be alluded to connected with the park of Drum. Of
it is known (from the Exchequer Records) that he held the office
rk Register (clericus rotulorum et register). He is also believed to
been the King's secretary, and a man of unusual learning and
culture for a layman.