AULD AYR and its HONEST MEN
WILLIAM BURNESS
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS MAN - WILLIAM BURNES THE FATHER OF SCOTLAND’S NATIONAL POET - ROBERT BURNS?
William Burness from Kincardineshire was an experienced estate worker.
Burness was the spelling of north Kincardineshire surname.
He had worked at laying out the Meadows in Edinburgh.
William came west in 1750 into the employment of Alexander Fairlie of Fairlie.
Fairlie was one of Ayrshire’s leading agricultural improvers.
William Burness arrived in Ayr about 1752.
He moved to Doonside, working for John Craufurd.
William had lodging at the Dutch Mill.
In 1754 when the lands of Alloway were rouped, Ayr Town Council required a new road to be made.
William Burness was well enough thought of by Ayr Town Council to be awarded,
the contract for laying out what became Greenfield Avenue in 1755/56
Ayr Town Council minutes for January 1756, recorded a payment of £12.10/- --
-- to William Burnes as an instalment of the total cost of £50 for the building of the road.
William for building the road, received from the council a final payment on 7 June 1756.
A fortnight later he purchased land from Dr Alexander Campbell, owner of the new estate of Belleisle.
Dr Campbell, sold William a feu of seven acres to form his own small holding.
At that time Craufurd of Doonside was selling off some of his land.
William Burnes (Ayrshire spelling) probably intended to leave Doonside to employ himself full-time at these ‘New Gardens”.
Gilbert Burns the brother of Robert supplied the following evidence.
‘Before William Burnes had made much progress in preparing his nursery, he was withdrawn from that undertaking by Mr Fergusson, who purchased the estate of Doonholm, in the immediate neighbourhood.
Mr Fergusson engaged William Burnes and employed him as his gardener and overseer of the eatate.’
Doonholm became the largest of the new estates created after the roup of the lands of Alloway”.
(Do you know where to find Gilbert’s comment on his father?)
During your visit to Ayr and Alloway, walk out of the Burns Cottage car park and walk in the footsteps of the Burness family. You are standing in Greenfield Avenue and William Burness constructed the road and planted the avenue of trees. Turn right and walk along Greenfield Avenue.
At the end of Greenfield Avenue, who built the bridge over the River Doon?
Robert Burns’s future in laws - Jean Armour’s father James Armour, and her grandfather Adam Smith, both master masons from Mauchline. Greenan Bridge was built in 1772. By coincidence, the Burnes family were living at Mount Oliphant Farm, within 2 miles of Greenan Bridge, when the poet’s future father- in-law and grandfather-in-law were engaged on the building contract.
The present bridge now called Doonfoot Bridge, was built in 1861.
William Burnes, it is clear was not, as sometimes supposed, a menial labourer.
He was a skilled worker of the type much in demand for laying out of parks and gardens,
planting avenues of trees, construction of roads, and replanning of farms.
William Burnes, the father of Robert Burns had other skills.
What were these? Join us again soon and discover the man who was the father of the boy.
