William Gardner Burn

Awarded part of the compensation for Content Hall in St Elizabeth Jamaica, by virtue of his marriage to Elizabeth or Eliza nee Hewitt, as part of a Devon nexus with his co-awardees George Pearse (q.v.) and Mary Kellett Hewitt (q.v.).

1. At Salcomb, Devon, Capt. Burn, 3rd or Kings Own Drag[oons], [married] Eliza, eldest daughter of the late W[illiam] K[ellitt] Hewitt, Esquire, of Cashoo Estate, St Elizabeth's Jamaica.

2. William Gardner Burn and his wife Eliza[beth] had 5 children baptised in Exeter between 1815 and 1822. Marriage records suggest he had at least two more children: Randolph Seton Burn, son of William Gardner Burn, married Mary Gladwich in Whitechaptel, England, 31/12/1847; Augustus George William Burn, son of William Gardner Burn, married Helen Marie Gilman George in Singapore, Bengal, India, 12/02/1855.

3. Eliza Charlotte, eldest daughter of William Gardener Burn, Esq., Captain late 3d Light Dragoons and of Byrleigh House Devonshire, married Arthur Freese, of the Madras Civil Service, at the British Embassy Paris c. 1833.

4. Burns' military career may be traceable under 'William Burn'. An announcement from the War Office 20/01/1810 shows the transfer of Lieutenant William Burn from the 9th Foot to be a Lieutenant in the 3rd Regiment of Dragoons by purchase; a similar notice 02/02/1813 shows a William Burn proceeding to a Captaincy by purchase, apparently however in the 2nd Regiment of Dragoons.

5. William Gardner Burn, age 61, died 29/05/1852 age 61 and was buried the following day in Visugapatam, Madras, India. A further Indian connection is seen in the marriage of his eldest son, William Hewitt Seton Burn, to Louisa Clemence Lewis 18/10/1860 in Bengal.

T71/870 St Elizabeth claim no. 1024

1. Gentleman's Magazine (1814) vol. 84 part 2 p. 496.

2. Familysearch.org batch nos. C05091-1, M00066-7; M75017-2.

3. The New Monthly Magazine and universal register pp. 278-9 1834; however, a notice of an apparently unrelated marriage in 1831 between Rev. John Tucker of Ham house near Cheltenham and Jane Rogers, eldest daughter of the late T. Shepherd, at Bradninch (where George Pearse lived) also refers to Jane Rogers as 'of Byrleigh House', Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 150 p. 76

4. London Gazette, Issue 16334, 16/01/1810, p. 85; London Gazette, Issue 16699, 30/01/1813, p. 228.

5. Familysearch.org batch nos. B00201-5 and M75017-2.

We are grateful to Anne Murie for her assistance with compiling this entry.