The Burnett Family
My intention is to use this page as an historical account of where our family originated. At present and purely because my sister Michelle dedicated her time in research as far as she was able, we can only trace back as far as our Great Grandfather James Burnett.
At some point in the future I’m planning to go much further back but that will take some time. So, for now, lets begin with what we know of James, his wives and children and then progress from there.
Our great grandad, James Burnett was married three times. Firstly, married to Jane Bath on 3rd November 1863, then later to Martha Burnett. Finally, to Emily.
As he joined the East India company in 1858, the picture (Illustrated) of James in uniform, is possibly Jane and not Martha.
They had baby Martha on 19th December 1880, then Frederick James Burnett (our grandad), and then another son, Lindsey.
Martha senior died and was buried in October 1889, followed in December the same year by Lindsey, age 16 months.
James remarried Emily, and they had a boy called Arthur Hall Burnett, who died in 1901 aged 3 years old.
When James died ten years later in 1911, he was buried in the same grave as his second wife and two sons, at Southern Cemetery in Manchester.
I have been to the cemetery and found the plot, but unfortunately there is no headstone. One can only presume that they were poor and could not afford one. They were buried in a non-conformist grave.
It is my belief that James’ third wife, Emily, was a member of a strict religious sect called the Plymouth Brethren. The sect allowed no newspapers or radio and of course television did not become available until 1926.
What happened to our grandad Frederick and his sister Martha when his mother and brother died (he would have been 5 years old), I don’t know. He could possibly have lived with his father, James.
In the census of 1901, he is living with James, Emily, and Arthur Hall Burnett , (no mention of Martha, but she could have been ‘in service’ by then), but in the census of 1891, I could not find a record of them living together. Maybe they lived in a children’s home until James remarried?
My Uncle Don has told me that Emily lived in Hadfield, Glossop and I have found a death record for Ashton, which tallies with this. He also said that our grandad never visited his stepmother, but she visited him occasionally, and Uncle Don remembers that they dreaded her visits, because she was so strict and fanatically religious. He also said he had an auntie Martha who they used to visit, and she had two sons.
It sounds like our grandad did not have a happy upbringing after his natural mother died, and maybe this may have been a part of the explanation as to why he left our nana, Ethel, and went to live in Chelsea, London as well as to try and find work. He never returned, and Don said that when he died, Vera (Don’s sister) travelled down south to collect his body and bring it back to Southern Cemetery where he was laid to rest. However, what he did not say (and may not know), is that Dave has a copy of a transfer record that brought him back from London for burial, and Ethel (his wife, our nana) actually paid for this, suggesting that she still cared about him, and wanted him in the same area as the rest of his family. Were that the case, it is incredibly sad then, that Ethel was eventually buried in a separate grave than him.
Don also told me that he had an auntie Martha, who was married in 1912 to George F Jackson and they had three sons. They used to visit but apart from their marriage certificate in 1912, in Stockport, I cannot find Martha on any birth records, or census records. There are a great many Martha Burnett’s, but none living in
Chorlton upon Medlock and if she were not living there, she could be any number of the many Martha Burnett’s that are listed.
It’s entirely possible that she could have been another sibling to Frederick James Burnett, or she could have been the daughter of James’ brother, if indeed he had a brother. As there is no definite record that I can trace, I have left it off the family history, perhaps someone will find out one day….
In 1858, James joined and served in the 106 Regiment which was the Light Infantry, serving under the Honorable East India Company in Bombay. He would have played an active role in the Indian Mutiny which began 10th May 1857 through to 1st Nov 1858. As we do not know exactly when he joined, his participation in the mutiny was probably less than twelve months. My brother, Paul has a book, passed down through Eric our father, which is the complete history of the Indian Mutiny. Where this book originated, we do not know. It would be nice to believe that James himself owned the book which was then passed down through the generations.
We think James continued to serve in Bombay until he returned to the UK and then went on to serve with the 106 in Ireland until its dissolution in 1881. It appears that he and Martha were married in 1877 in Chester, which could corroborate this. To transport the company to Ireland its probable that they sailed from Liverpool, or perhaps even Anglesey.
Research by Michelle Burnett.