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

DEESIDE BURNETTS: XII. ALEXANDER. 33
and servants, shall be skaithless of him. In January, 1594-5, Alexander
Burnet resigned the barony of Leys to the Crown, and obtained a charter
regranting it to himself and his heirs male, in which the tower, manor,
and fortalice of Crathes are made the principal messuage of the barony.
Considerable additions were made by this laird to the family estates.
In 1605 he had a Crown charter on a conveyance by "Sir Henry
Lindsay alias Charteris"* of lands in the parishes of Lumfannan and
Kincardine O'Neil, described as "Easter Camphill, Blairhead, Wester
Camphill, Alehouse Croft thereof, Cormoir, Craigour, Fordye,
Mill of
Craigour, Milltown of Camphill, Croft in Lumfannan called Milcroft,
Alehousecroft, presently occupied by Arthur Adam, and pasture of that
part of the Hill of Fare formerly granted by John Charteris of Kinfauns
to the late James Skene of that Ilk." Also feu-duties or annual rents of
24 Scots from these lands. The subjects, or great part of them, had
been held for some time from the Charteris family by certain persons
who, after this transfer, became vassals of Leys. The most considerable
of these feu-holders were Alexander Burnet of Craigour and William
Burnet of Camphill, grandsons of one William Burnet of Tillihaikie, who
had held part of these lands from the Charteris family, under a title
which had at first been a redeemable one, from the first half of the i6th
century. This branch of the Burnet family will come to be considered
later. Of half of Cormoir, Leys in the following year, by resignation of
Elizabeth Lay, wife of Duncan JafTray, obtained the property, as well as
the superiority ; and, in 1609, he obtained the two halves of Tillihaikie
by Crown charter, on resignation of Robert Hunter and of Thomas
Burnet of Craigmyle.
In 1608, Tilliboy or Kilduthie, one of the subjects conveyed to his
ancestor by Robert Bruce, was re-acquired by Alexander Burnet, by
purchase, for 8000 merks, from Cumyn of Culter, to whom he assigned
Wester Cardney.
*The ancient, and once powerful, family of Charteris of Kinfauns, in addition to their
possessions of Kinfauns in Perthshire, and Canglour in Stirlingshire, had, from the I4th century,
owned Lumfannan, of which these lands formed part. John Charteris of Kinfauns, in 1584,
adopted Sir Henry Lindsay of Carriston (who, in 1621, became I3th Earl of Crawford) as his
heir, making over his whole estates to him on condition of his taking the name and arms of
Charteris of Kinfauns, a transaction ratified in Parliament three years later. By this means
there was brought into the possession of the Leys family a very interesting set of titles, to be
noticed in the Appendix.
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