BURNLEY.
John Burnley, an Englishman, who lived in Hanover
County, returned to England in 1771, leaving in Virginia a
will of that date, but making another in England in 1778.
In both of these he bequeathed property to a son Zachariah,
and to daughters, Elizabeth and Keziah, who were both
married to Dukes. A litigation followed respecting these
bequests, and was protracted through a period of fifty years.
Hardin Burnley, a brother or son of John, obtained patents
for land in Albemarle from 1749 to 1764. Zachariah, probably
the one already mentioned, and a citizen of Orange
County, purchased in 1767 from Dr. Arthur Hopkins nearly
fifteen hundred acres on Hardware and Totier, which Hardin
had patented, but forfeited for non-payment of quit rents.
In 1788 he also purchased upwards of four hundred acres at
the mouth of Priddy's Creek, which he shortly after sold to
Peter Clarkson. Nicholas Mills, of Hanover, in 1786 conveyed
to James Burnley, of Louisa, a considerable tract of
land on Beaver Creek, north of Mechum's River Depot, and
from the nominal consideration specified it is likely he was
Mill's son-in-law. He fixed his residence there, as did his
son John also; but toward the close of the century they
appear to have sold to other persons, and removed elsewhere.
A Reuben Burnley was the owner of Lots Seventy-Three
and Seventy-Four in Charlottesville, the square on which Dr.
W. G. Rogers resides, and with his wife Harriet conveyed
them in 1806 to Dr. Charles Everett. A James Burnley
purchased about eighty acres north and northeast of the University
in 1803, but dying before the deed was made, the property
was conveyed to his wife Ann. He left a daughter Mary,
who was married first to John L. O'Neal, and secondly to
Daniel Piper, and in the decade of 1820 she and her second
husband sold this land to different persons, in part to the
University. When the estate of Cornelius Schenk was sold,
Ann bought Lots Sixty-Seven and Sixty-Eight, immediately
west of the Episcopal Church, and lived there for many years,
selling them in 1837 to Alonzo Gooch. From her the spring
at the foot of the hill, at the junction of the extension of
High Street with the Whitehall Road, formerly went by the
name of Burnley's Spring. There can hardly be a doubt
that all these Burnleys, as well as those mentioned hereafter,
derived their descent from the same stock.
Of eight brothers of the name belonging to Louisa County,
two, and the descendants of two others, settled in Albemarle.
Seth Burnley lived north of Hydraulic Mills, married Ann,
daughter of Horsley Goodman, and died in 1857. He was
succeeded by his son James H., who married Mildred, daughter
of John J. Bowcock. Nicholas, who lived in the Beaver
Creek nieghborhood, married Susan, daughter of James Harris.
He left two sons, James Harris and Joel, who removed
to Pickaway County, Ohio, and a daughter Mary, who was
the wife of John T. Wood. Samuel, the son of Henry Burnley,
pursued for many years the calling of a teacher. He
married Martha, the daughter of his cousin Nathaniel, and
spent his last days on his farm on Mechunk, not far from
Union Mills. He died in 1875. A sister of Samuel, Mildred,
became the wife of Crenshaw Fretwell, and four of his nieces
the wives of Judge George P. Hughes, James F. Burnley, A.
J. Wood and J. R. Wingfield. Nathaniel, the son of John
Burnley, settled in the early part of the century at Stony
Point, where he kept tavern for many years. In 1829, in
partnership with Rice W. Wood, he bought from John M.
Perry the Hydraulic Mills, where he transacted the milling
and mercantile business until his death in 1860. In 1811 he
married Sarah, daughter of the elder Drury Wood, and his
children were James F., William, Horace, Drury, Martha,
the wife of Samuel Burnley, Lucy, the wife of Charles Vest,
Mary J., the wife of Dr. Garland A. Garth, Emily, the wife
of Burwell Garth, and Cornelia, the wife of James P. Railey.
Nathaniel's sister Elizabeth was married in 1816 to Hudson
Fretwell.
