Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 189.  Jefferson County.

THEODORE L. BURNETT, of Louisville, for eighteen years corporation
counsel of the city, was born November, 14, 1829, in Spencer county,
Kentucky.  The ancestry of the Barnett family can be traced back to 1688,
when Gilbert Burnet accompanied William of Orange to England as chaplain
and became bishop of Salisbury in 1689.  A son of Gilbert, William by
name, came to America in 1720 and was governor of the colonies of New
York and New Jersey and later colonial governor of Massachusetts and New
Hampshire.  Another son of Bishop Gilbert was Dr. Thomas Burnett. George
Burnett, son of Dr. Thomas Burnett, emigrated to Virginia in 1721 and
from this branch of the family has descended the immediate ancestry of
Theodore L. Burnett.
     His parents died when he was a youth, but under the wise care of a
guardian he was liberally and thoroughly educated, graduating at
Transylvania University and later in the law department of the same
institution in 1846.  He was licensed to practice by the court of appeals,
but joined the volunteers for service in the Mexican war.  Returning to
Kentucky in 1847, he was elected county attorney for Spencer county and
also entered upon a successful career as a practitioner, continuing
there until 1861, when he joined the Confederate forces.  He was elected
to represent a district of Kentucky in the Confederate congress and on
the expiration of that term was re-elected, continuing in the military
services up to the close of hostilities; he then returned to his old
home in Spencer county and resumed practice.
     In 1864 Mr. Burnett removed to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1870
became corporation counsel of the city and has been re-elected six times.
     Mr. Burnett has a high appreciation of the dignity of the legal
calling, and by his personal bearing has added luster to the legal records
of the state.  In the discharge of his duties as the representative of the
city he is courteous, kind and attentive, with a masterful command of all
the resources of the well-equipped lawyer and advocate, wise in counsel and
vigorous in the active conduct of his cases.  He was chairman of the state
Democratic committee in 1876, and successfully conducted the campaign in
Kentucky.  Mr. Burnett was married in 1852 to Miss Elizabeth S. Gilbert,
of Spencer county. Their son, John C. Burnett, is also a worthy member of
the Louisville bar.

Burnett Burnet Barnett Gilbert
=
Spencer-KY Fayette-KY VA NY NJ NH MA England

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/burnett.tl2.txt