Sir Thomas Burnett, 6th
Baronet of Leys, married Katherine Ramsay, Heiress of Balmain in 1754. Due to provisions
in the marriage contract, Sir Thomas had become heir of line of the Ramsays of Balmain
after the death in 1806 of Sir Alexander Ramsay, 6th Baronet of Balmain
(Katherine’s brother) who left no heirs. Since Thomas’ elder son Robert
succeeded to Burnett of Leys, the Balmain title and estates passed to his younger son
Alexander Burnett.
Alexander was born in 1757 and became Sheriff of Kincardineshire in 1779. On his succession to
Balmain, he assumed the name Ramsay by royal license (as well as arms by warrant of the Lord Lyon)
and was created a Baronet of the United Kingdom in 1806 as Sir Alexander Ramsay of Balmain. He
and his wife Elizabeth Bannerman of Elsick had 15 children. Alexander died in 1810.
Alexander’s youngest child, Lauderdale, married her cousin Sir James Horn Burnett of Leys, 10th
Baronet, as his second wife.
Sir Herbert Ramsay, 5th Baronet of Balmain, immigrated to Australia where he married in 1902.
His grandson, Sir Alexander William Burnett Ramsay, born in 1937 in New South Wales, Australia, is the
current (7th) Baronet of Balmain as well as the heir presumptive of the dormant
Baronetcy of Burnett of Leys.