Early Life
It is likely that Barnet Burns was baptised in the parish of Kirkby Ireleth on 25 November 1805. His parents were likely George Burns (born 1770) and Anne (née Stewart).
At the age of 13 or 14 he became a cabin boy and ended up working for Louis Celeste Lecesne in Jamaica. When Lecesne travelled to England to petition parliament over his false arrest and exile, Burns travelled with him. Under the patronage of Lecesne, Burns went to the Lancasterian school at Borough Road in London.
Burns again set sail in 1827 on the brig Wilna and arrived at Rio de Janeiro. Following a dispute between the Captain and crew, all the crew were paid off from the ship and Burns then obtained a berth as steward on the barque Nimrod, Captain Eilbeck which set out for Australia and arrived at Sydney on 22 August 1828.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)