There was a branch of the name BURNETT
already established at Bishop Monkton in the late fifteenth century.
Documents exist which give an account of the "beating of the
bounds" of the Liberty of Ripon, in 1485, in which were involved two
men named John BURNETT, both from Bishop Monkton. The earliest will so far
found for a Bishop Monkton BURNETT is the will of John BURNETT of Monketon
[sic] proved in 1517 - almost certainly one of the two John's mentioned
above. The will named John's daughter Agnes, son Thomas, wife Catherine and
sister Isabell PAGE. The will of Henry BURNETT of Bishop Monkton, in 1542,
named sons John and Roger and daughters Agnes and Janet. The recurrence of
the name Agnes and the fact that Henry named a son John provide some
circumstantial evidence that Henry was very closely related to John who
died in 1517. The first entry in the
Ripon parish register which specified Bishop Monkton as the residence was
the baptism of Ann, daughter of Thomas BURNETT of Mouncton [sic], on 26 Dec
1579. From other entries in the Ripon register, it is possible to identify
three more individuals, William, Miles and Roger BURNETT, who were raising
families in Bishop Monkton between 1590 and 1630. It does not require a
great stretch of the imagination to link Roger back to Henry BURNETT who
died in 1542. Roger had a son named Edward baptised in 1628 and we can
speculate that this was the Edward BURNETT of Bishop Monkton who had
children baptised between 1670 and 1680. A William BURNETT of Bishop
Monkton also had children baptised during this time, one of whom was named
Roger. There were three Bishop Monkton men having children baptised between
1700 and 1720; Peter BURNETT, Thomas BURNETT and William BURNETT. Any one
of these men could have been the father of a Thomas BURNETT of Bishop
Monkton who married Mary DICKENSON in 1729. There can be little
doubt that all of the individuals mentioned above were closely related
members of the same family line. We can only speculate at their family trees,
there are just too many gaps in the Ripon parish register, particularly in
the returns for the chapelry of Bishop Monkton. However, enough evidence
has survived to enable two family trees to be constructed as follows:
The
descendants of Edward BURNETT and Ann GIBSON
The
descendants of Thomas BURNETT and Mary DICKINSON