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

DEESIDE BURNETTS: VI. ALEXANDER. 13
It was about this time that we first find a close connection subsisting
between the Burnets and the Abbey of Arbroath. In former times the
Burnards on both sides of the Border were best known by their bene-
factions to the monasteries but the relations of the Burnets of the i$th
century to the church were somewhat different in kind. The age of
munificent church endowments was past ; the Abbeys had reached their
climax of wealth and influence ; the period of the decline of their power
being not far off. The monastery of Tyronensian monks, founded in
1 178 at Arbroath by William the Lion, had been, during the pre-Bruceian
period, gradually adding to the large possessions with which the King had
endowed it by private benefactions, and held the whole in free regality,
with Sovereign power over the people, and immense emoluments derived
from criminal jurisdiction.
One of the twenty-four churches with which
its original founder had endowed it was Banchory-Ternan. The lands of
this Abbey, which comprised a large part of Angus and Mearns,
extended at one point as far northwards as Donside, and bordered on
the possessions of the Burnets. They included various acquisitions from
Thomas of Lundin, the Doorward, including the forest land at the
junction of the Dee and Canny, known then, as part of it now is, as the
"nemus de Trostauch." It was the policy of this religious house to be
on friendly terms with the magnates of the district, the greatest of whom
were, during the fifteenth century, numbered among the vassals and
tenants of the Abbot of Arbroath, the barons obtaining, on evidently
favourable terms, the lands which they held on free charter or lease.
Incidental mention is made of this Alexander Burnet in the Arbroath
Chartulary as early as 1460, as on an inquest regarding the multures of
the Mill of Conweth belonging to the Abbey (Reg. Nig. de Arbr.,p. 115),
and in 1472, when, along with Alexander Eraser of Durris, he is bailie of
the Abbot to execute a precept of sasine in Banchory {Ibid,, p. 167).
In 1482 the same Alexander Burnet has a nine years tack from the
Abbot David * of the greater tithes of the church of Banchory-Ternan,
for a tack duty of 15 (Ibid., p. 192). In 1485 he, has a lease for life,
from the same Abbot David, to himself and Elizabeth, his wife, of the
lands and mills of Glenfarquhar (near Bervie Water, in the parish of
Fordoun), of which he is said to have been in possession "temporibus
*The friendly relations with Abbot David Lechton (1482-1502) were cemented by the
marriage of one of the Lechton family to Ley's grandson and heir.