Notes for Samuel Horace BURNET

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Notes for Samuel Horace BURNET

[Biographical and genealogical history of the city of Newark and Essex County, New Jersey .. [1898], p. 522:
SAMUEL H. BURNET.
About the year 1643 Thomas Burnet
emigrated from Yorkshire, England, to
Lynn, Massachusetts, and thence to South-
ampton, Long Island, where, on the 13th
of October, 1643, ^^ was granted a tract
of land on condition that he resided on it
for a period of three years. From the
Southampton records we copy the follow-
ing: "Oct. 13, 1643, Thomas Burnet hath
a lott graunted unto him on the south east
side upon condicon that hee staye three
yeares in the Towne to ymprove yt." He
accepted the condition, improved the land,
married Mary Pierson, and reared the fol-
lowing children : John, Joel, Lot, Hester,
Miriam, Priscilla, Aaron, Mordecai and
Dan. Of the sons, Mordecai moved to
Elizabethtown, New Jersey, about 1683,
and was admitted one of the associates un-
der the Indian title. Matthias settled in
Easthampton, Long Island, where he was
a justice of the peace, a captain, and there
his will was recorded, in July, 1745, and
proved April 8, 1746; Aaron settled in
Madison. New Jersey, where he died at the
age of one hundred years; Lot married
Phoebe Mills on the 20th of October, 1675,
and these sons were born to them : Joseph,
David, Nathan, Jonathan, Samuel,
Ephraim and Isaac. Samuel married Ma-
rischa Roll, of New York, and their son,
Samuel, became united to Lucy Chase,
who bore him three sons and four daugh-
ters, of whom Joseph and David served in
the Revolutionary war, the death of the
former occurring while in service. Sam-
uel, the grandfather of our subject, also
served in the war of the Revolution, and
married Ruth Hedges, a daughter of Lem-
uel Hedges, of Long Island. In 1799 Samuel
Burnet moved to Livingston township and
purchased the house in which the subject
of this review was born. For a while he
conducted a tavern, where the Newark
stages stopped, and later moved to Chat-
ham, where he died on the 4th of June,
1 819, his widow surviving until June 7,
1824. They were both members of the Pres-
byterian church and they reared the follow-
ing children: Joseph, born September 12,
1799, died June 3. 1818: John Wycliffe,
born July 31, 1781, died March 8. 1851;
Samuel, born April 21. 1783, died Septem-
ber 3. 1865; David, born December 2,
1784, died May 11, 1875; Sarah, born
March 23, 1787, died February 23, 1831;
Phebe Chatfield. born May 10, 1790, died
in October, 1869; Betsy, born August 14,
1792, died May 15, 1839; Sophia, born
IMarch 3, 1895, died November 24, 1864;
Mary, born April 26, 1798, died November
24, 1864; and Lewis Woodruff, born June
25, 1 80 1, died June 16, 1881.
Samuel Burnet was married to Betsey
Clark Ball, second cousin to Abraham
Clark, the signer of the Declaration of In-
dependence, and daughter of Abner and
Rachel Robertson Ball, January 2, 1803.
They had eleven children, — three sons and
eight daughters. Samuel Horace, the sub-
ject of this sketch, their seventh child, was
born March 11, 1815, was reared on the
old homestead, and received a limited edu-
cation in the district schools. On the 29th
of December, 1839, he was united in mar-
riage to Hannah Maria Edwards, who
died on the 22d of December, 1866; was
married a second time, namely, to Louisa
J. Collins, on the 2d of July, 1887. Six
children were born to the first wife,
namely : Betsy, the wife of George Em-
mons, of this county; Samuel, residing in
Livingston township, who was twice mar-
ried and had two sons, Wallace W. and
Samuel, Jr.; Hannah, who married Peter
Meeker, of Roseland; Enoch E., of Liv-
ingston; Sarah Frances, the wife of Thomas
G. McOuade; and Moses, who died when
eighteen months old. Mr. Burnet's mater-
nal grandfather, Abner Ball, and great-
grandfather, Thomas Ball, served during
the whole of the Revolutionary war.
Thomas Ball was sergeant in Captain Isaac
Gillam's company.
In his political faith Mr. Burnet is a
Republican. He first served as a constable
of Livingston and was town committee-
man for many years. While constable he
secured the passage of the law through the
legislature, exempting two hundred dollars'
worth of property from execution. This
was a great boon to the poor of cities.
In 1861 he was elected chosen freeholder;
and, the quota of Livingston township be-
ing but twenty, he introduced a bjll pro-
viding for the paying of a bounty of five
hundred dollars for every volunteer in the
county. He was chosen to pay bounties,
his services being accepted without bonds,
and he handled the money most judicious-
ly, Mr. Burnet going to iMorristown and
there taking charge of the matter without
asking any compensation from the county.
This project succeeded in securing a large
number of men from Bloomfield and thir-
ty-one from Irvington, all of whom were
placed in the navy. Mr. Burnet has served
in nearly all the township offices, he was
instrumental in obtaining the erection of
a new school-house in his district by a
special act of legislation, and in securing
the passage of the skim-milk law, and
owing to his efforts a law was passed pro-
viding for voting by ballot at town meet-
ings. He owns two hundred and fitty
acres of land in Livingston township, and
in connection with his agricultural pursuits
he was formerly engaged in the shoe busi-
ness. Mrs. Burnet is a member of the
Baptist church.
*****

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