Genealogical memoirs of the family of Robert Burns and of the Scottish house of Burnes

GENEALOGICAL MEMOIRS.
ETC. ETC.
The name Burns or Burnes is probably derived from the
Anglo-Saxon Beom, a chief, with the affix nes, denoting pos-
session. At Burnesburgh, in Yorkshire, Athelstan, in 938, 1
defeated the Danes and Scots. Burneston-juxta-Ermuldon,
in Northumberland, was one of the estates left in 1391 2 by
Jacoba, wife of John de Stryvelyn. The manor of Burnes-
ton, in Derbyshire, belonging to the abbey of Welbeck, and
other places so called, are named in the reigns of Henry VIII.
and Elizabeth. 3 Burnestede, in Norfolk, belonged to Beatrix,
Countess of Arundel, in 1440 ; 4 and Burneshead, in Cumber-
land, was the seat of a family named Burnes up to the reign
of Edward I. 5
In Domesday Book in 1050 Godric de Burnes appears as
owner of wide domains in Kent. 6 In the reigns of Eichard I.
and John (1189-1216) are named, in connection with property
in Kent, Eustace de Burnes, Eoger de Burnes, and William
J Hardyng's Chronicle, Lond. 1543.
2 Calendar. Iuquisit. Post Mort., Lond. 1821, vol. iii., p. 127.
3 Valor Eeclesiasticus, temp. Henry VIII., Lond. 1825 ; Ducatus Lancas-
trian, Lond. 1827.
* Calendar. Iuquisit. Post Mort., vol. iv., p. 197.
5 Burn's Cumberland, Loud. 1777, vol. i., p. 121.
Ellis' Introduction to Domesday Look, vol. ii., p. 63.