William’s first wife, Ann SEALBY, died in 1802 and he married second wife Mary BOLTON in 1803
William left a will - listed in Probate Indexes for the Prerogative & Exchequer Courts of the Archbishop of York: May 1827, William BURNETT of Knottingley. The registered copy of the will also shows the testator as William BURNETT but a codicil added in 1823 names the testator as William BURNITT.
The will was dated 6 Apr 1819 at Knottingley and the beneficiaries were, in order of mention:
Wife Mary
Sons Joseph and John
The codicil named grandson William BOULTON
Witnesses to the will were: Thomas FIRTH, Wm HORNER and James NORTON SrWilliam is known to have had a daughter named Mary Ann in his marriage to Ann SEALBY but she was not mentioned in his will. It is possible that Mary Ann married and that the grandson named in the codicil to Willliam’s will was her son.but it does seem more likely that the ‘grandson’ William BOULTON was in fact a grandson of his second wife Mary BOLTON.
William's second wife, Mary, lived to the age of 80yrs. She died on 11 Dec 1849 at Knottingley. Her death certificate described her as "widow of William Burnitt, waterman".
Ann wife of William Burnit was buried on 24 Jan 1802 aged 3(3)? yrs. [register of St. Botulph's chapel, Knottingley]. Her husband William obviously married again because he named his wife as Mary in his own will in 1819 - though he did not die until 1827.
Vanda B. Moss has the death of Ann SEALBY on 14 Dec 1849 and gives "monumental inscription" as her source, but the death certificate for *Mary* BURNITT, widow of William BURNITT, gives her date of death as 11 Dec 1849, aged 80yrs [this death was *registered* on 14 Dec 1849]
16. Mary Ann BURNITT
Mary Ann was the only daughter of William and Ann BURNITT and a grandson named William BOULTON was the beneficiary named in a codicil to the will of William BURNITT in 1823. It is possible that he was a son of Mary Ann from her marriage to a man named BOULTON but it is thought more likely that he was in fact a grandson of her father’s second wife Mary BOLTON.