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

DEESIDE BURNETTS : IX. ALEXANDER. 19
put in possession by his grandfather of Collonach and The Hill, in the
barony of Leys, of which they had sasine on 5th May, 1501 (Leys
Charters). The previous year, on 27th July, 1500, he added to the
always accumulating lands held by the Burnets from the monastery of
Arbroath, Invercanny and its mill, with half the town of Banchory, with
its ferryboat, the tack being for his lifetime and that of Agnes Lechtoun,
his wife, the ferme paid for Invercanny being *$ 6s. 8d. ; for the half of
Banchory, 133. 46. (Reg. Nig. de Arbr., p. 331). On i;th June, 1525,
the tack is renewed for 19 years to himself and his sons, Robert and
Symon, the rent being the same (Ibid., p. 448). The Symon here
mentioned was perhaps the Symon Burnet who, on 8th January, 1558-9,
appears in the Aberdeen Burgh Records as objecting (along with Menzies
of Pitfoddels, the Provost, and others) to the proposal soon afterwards
carried into effect by some of the barons of the Mearns and townsmen
of Aberdeen of pulling down the Convents of the Black and the White
Friars, and appropriating their property to the town, a purpose characterized
by them as " manifest treason "
(Burgh Records of Aberdeen,
Spalding Club, I., p. 316).
Alexander was alive 2nd September, 1525, but died before nth
February following.
IX.
ALEXANDER BURNET of Leys (1529-1574).
Alexander Burnet of
Canneglerocht, as heir to his father, Alexander Burnet of Colonach, had,
on nth February, 1525-6, sasine on a precept from his still surviving
grandfather, Alexander Burnet of Leys, of Colonach and The Hill.
Under the same designation, "of Canneglerocht," he had on 1st October,
1529, sasine of the barony of Leys on a retour to his grandfather and
crown precept. He had by some means re-acquired Kilduthie (Acts
and Decreets, 128, p. 378). This representative of the family lived
through the period immediately preceding the Scottish Reformation,
and during the crisis of that movement ; and his history shews that the
friends of the old church, as well as the zealous reforming Lords,
occasionally reaped temporal benefit from its downfall.
The circumstance that the laird of Leys had an uncle a prebendary
of St. Machar's Cathedral naturally brought him into friendly relations
with the other members of the Chapter of Aberdeen. One of these