DESCENDANTS OF
THOMAS BURNET or BURNETT
1615-1684
of Southampton, LI

Introduction
Every effort has been made to determine the descendants of Thomas Burnet (or Burnett if you prefer 2 “Ts”) through his male Burnet descendants born through 1800-1820, i.e. through the 6th to 7th generation. With Burnet or Burnett daughters, I have tried to obtain their dates and spouses, but have rarely pursued them further. Over the past 35+ years I have been in direct contact with over 50 Burnet or Burnett descendants; and indirectly with many more. We are all learning; no one has all of the answers.

One "T" or two "Ts?" The name was Burnard until the 1400s, when John 5th of Leys adopted the "Burnet" spelling. This spelling persisted into the 1800s, when the Leys family changed the spelling to Burnett. Burnet (one "T") was the spelling that was generally used by the family when Thomas Burnett came to America. How did Thomas Burnett spell his name? Did town clerks misspell it? Was there an editing error by those who prepared printed volumes? It is known that where original records exist, his children universally used the single "T" spelling, Burnet. And it is pronounced like the words "burn it." (As per usage of the city/county/Governor of Texas, Mayor Isaac and Judge Jacob of Cincinnati, the Burnet Golf Classic, and some descendants of Thomas' sons: John, Lot, Dan and Aaron.)

I debated for decades the feasibility of publishing a printed volume, but have decided to make this Burnett chart or “tree” available FREE on the Internet. This will help to answer some of the most recent and frequent queries, “Am I on the right track?” The text will NOT be on the Net. The text will not be complete; I expect that this to remain a "work-in-progress" thoughout my life. However, I am considering offering the text (in its cleaned-up form) for a small fee. With maximum "compression" and zero graphics, it still fits on a floppy. I will likely also offer to e-mail selected pages for those whose interest in the Burnet or Burnett family is strictly limited to his/her own direct line. The text is currently about 175 pages of single spaced, no-nonsense data and sources.

I have located many of the most obscure sources of data. I have had access to data that is no longer available. “That” data may provide to YOU the long-sought “proof” or might provide the correct direction for continued research. However, I don't have all of the answers. After all of these years, I’m still learning! In the past 5 months a preponderance of evidence has forced me to accept several major new areas of proof. And surely more will become evident.

My son, grandson and their ancestors have lived for over 250 years at a distance no greater than 5 miles from the tombstone and original NJ home of Aaron Burnet Sr. (1655/56 - 9/1755 in his 100th year) in Madison, NJ. My son lives on property that has been in the family for 249 years, except for a hiatus of 30 years. This branch of the Burnett or Burnet family moved from Southampton, LI to Madison, NJ over a period of 9 years 1744-1752. If Thomas Burnet is generation #1, my grandson is generation #12 - or the 11th generation in the Madison area. (I lived for 50 years within 30-45 minutes of all North NJ sources.)

I have been involved in Burnet or Burnett family history since about 1964. Suffolk Co., LI - Washington, DC - Trumbull & Mahoning Co., OH - Springfield/Hadley, MA - Salt Lake City. I made dozens of day-trips to the NJ Archives, Trenton; NJ Genealogical Society at Rutgers Univ. Lib., New Brunswick, the NJ Historical Society, Newark; LI Historical Society, Brooklyn; Essex County Hall of Records. I made several day-trips to Union, Hunterdon, Somerset, Sussex, & Warren Counties, and to NY and PA Historical Societies & Genealogical Societies. And others that I visited once or twice, to little avail.

My visits to the Morris County Hall of Records number above 100. I have abstracted most Burnet deeds and mortgages, wills and estates to 1850+; Court of Common Pleas records to about 1770; Morris Co. Marriage Books; Revolutionary War Commissioner of Loans records (sort of mortgages re: converting pounds to "Jersey dollars.") I was a virtual “fixture” at Morristown Library; every single indexed volume in their vast collection as of the late 1970s was checked for Burnett entries; unindexed volumes that I knew to be important (Southampton Records, etc.) were examined page by page. I abstracted every Burnet and Burnett named on tax ratables for Morris, Sussex, Essex, Bergen Counties 1776-1820, so far as they were available (microfilm and incomplete.) I abstracted the US Census records for 1830, 40, 50; I abstracted Militia and Voting censuses for 1771, 1776, 1793. (1790, 1800, 1810, 1820 US Census records do not exist for NJ.) I spent hundreds of hours gleaning the cemeteries in Morris County and in conference with church leaders and secretaries for all existent churches pre 1825 in Morris, Union, Essex, Sussex and Warren. I walked some cemeteries in Union and Essex Counties too. (Some cemeteries are in areas that are not safe and were therefore not actually seen; a few have been replaced by commercial development and we are at the mercy of those who copied/archived/published this data previously.)

I created/edited/authored/copyrighted:
**“1975 Calendar” and-
**“1976 Calendar” for the Madison American Revolution Bicentennial Committee; historically significant for photos and anecdotes.
**Response to a submission of the Morris Co. Heritage Commission r/t the Civic and Commercial District of Madison.
**The Madison chapter of “Tours in Historic Morris County” for the Morris Co. Historical Society.
**”From Indian Trail, To Iron Horse and Beyond,” the text of the bus tours conducted in Madison during the Bicentennial celebration, for the Bottle Hill Day Committee.
**”An Intimate History of the Presbyterian Church of Madison, NJ, 1747-1862” from the Journal of Samuel Tuttle,” using his original handwritten notes; with Viola Shaw, I was co-editor/annotator.
**”Madison, NJ Presbyterian Church Vital Records 1747-1900;” co-author with Viola Shaw.

I have ZERO doubt that I missed things. My “chicken-scratched” notes are sometimes confusing; some may be incomplete or inadequately, if not inaccurately, transcribed. (I now live in GA; I can’t go back to reexamine sources and verify data.) Sadly, I know that some of my sources have been “robbed blind” since I started on this journey. Among them are:
** The “John Robertson Burnett Collection” at NJ Historical Society, containing well over 1000 “Burnet” letters, written 1850-1865. As indexed in the early 1900s, it was missing about 10% of the letters in about 1965, at least 25% in 1970, and well over 75% in 1990. Virtually useless today; all original, valuable data has been stolen.
** The Dr. Edward Burnett Collection at LI Historical Society, Brooklyn, lost at least 75% of its contents between 1965, when I first saw it, and 1990 when I returned to clarify data. (This contained independent correspondence, 1880s-1920) as well as the result of communication with the family of John R. Burnet and hand-copies of some of his letters.) Virtually useless today; all valuable data is gone.
** I have not had cause to reexamine the Charles Carroll Gardner “Black Books” at the NJ Historical Society; he had indexed his data through the letter “C” in his endeavor to create an historical/genealogical encyclopaedia of early Morris, Essex, & Union County families. These loose-leaf notebooks contained a few of the actual, indexed letters belonging to the John R. Burnet collection. Since I have not reaccessed these notebooks, I cannot speak to the theft therein. However-
** C.C.Gardner created a card file of about 24 drawers in an old wooden library-type card catalog; the drawers were "packed" with 3x5 file cards containing notes from his research and correspondence. I first saw this in the mid 1960s; by 1990 the cards had diminished in volume by at least 20% for the Burnet or Burnett family (100% for one of my own lines.) This collection is at the NJ Genealogical Society, Rutgers University Library, New Brunswick.

I may “belabor the obvious” in my text, but this may be the only “public” record of some data, and I want to be certain that, however inadequate my efforts/notes, this data is not lost forever. I invite anyone who may have made extensive notes from any of these letters to share. Perhaps we can combine our notes and partially recreate the John R. Burnett and the Charles Carroll Gardner collections, and make Burnett's/Gardner's records available to all.

I’m certain that I have made errors of omission and commission. I have probably “missed” individuals, may have included people who “do not belong,” and have probably entered individuals in the “wrong place.” Please try to be forgiving and tolerant. I am more than willing to learn. If you can quote original documentation, I will cheerfully listen (Was Dr. Ichabod born in 1684 because Jacob, et.al. wrote that he was “90” or “about 90” when he died, or was he born in 1687 based on his printed, contemporary obit?) Please don’t tell me about the 1663 marriage of Thomas at Lynn, MA; wrong is wrong, no matter how often it is written. If you have compelling evidence of my errors, please advise.

Every individual has been given an unique identification “number” (series of letters.) (Weird perhaps, but many had 10+ kids; no one had 26.) This will enable you to find others, who are not “obvious” relatives, when they are referenced in the text. This will enable you to readily find direct ancestors and their siblings on the chart. I hope that I can thereby update, change, make corrections without reworking the entire site with every change. I encourage you to check back occasionally.

To locate "your" ancestor, go to the bottom of this page; in the search area, key in the name you are seeking and click the button for "this site." It will advise on which chart(s) your name appears. In the event you seek a common name, try searching on a spouse, child, known sibling, etc. The name will be highlighted. Click on the name and wait til the system finds the proper chart/line.

I have recently become convinced that Thomas Burnet or Burnett of Southampton, LI is the son of Thomas Burnet MA and Jane Foy of Braintree, Essex, England, and grandson of Alexander Burnet, 11th of Leys. He was born about 1615, came to the colonies in the early 1640s and moved to Southampton, LI, NY in 1643, where he died in 1684. His will was proved Dec. 2, 1684 at Riverhead, LI, NY and names his widow and 11 children. A transcript of his will can be seen at:
http://www.garlic.com/~pburnett/genetomb.htm

I have become further convinced that he had a single wife, Mary Cooper 1623-1706, daughter of John and Wilbro/Wiebro (Griggs) Cooper.

Thomas Burnet of Southampton, LI has been recognized by the Burnetts of Leys as having fathered a "cadet line" of descendants ("younger son of a younger son, etc.") His descent can readily be traced to Robert the Bruce, Charlemagne, even "Old King Cole." He descends from many of the royal houses of Europe, and via the Irish Kings, back through the Pharaohs to King David (upwards of 1000 kings in all.) If you are a Biblical "literalist" and believe that "In the beginning" was really less than 10,000 years ago, Thomas Burnett can be traced to Adam and Eve.
For a head start on the ancestors of Thomas Burnet or Burnett see Jim Fina's web pages:
http://home.att.net/~flba/leys.html
http://home.att.net/~flba/burnett.html
These provide links to other sites.
Also:
House of Burnett web page: http://home.pacbell.net/roothub/leys.html
New Burnett book, "Crannog to Castle."

To print you must use "landscape."
Text is too wide for "portrait."