The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 14, July 1910 - April, 1911 Page: 150

Texas Historical Association Quarterly.

ALBERT TRIPLETT BURNLEY
MARTHA A. BURNLEY
Albert Triplett Burnley was born on the 15th day of April,
1800, in Hanover county, Virginia. His grandfather, General
Zachariah Burnley, was an officer of the revolution and an in-
timate friend of General Sumter, of South Carolina. General
Burnley was one of three brothers who came to Virginia in the
early years of the eighteenth century. One of the brothers, Har-
din Burnley, returned to England when hostilities commenced,
and remained. His descendants have occupied prominent posi-
tions in England; one of them represented that country as the
head of the British Embassy at Washington during the Civil War.
Albert's father, William Reuben Burnley, died when Albert was
about ten years old, and a few years after, his mother married
Judge Nooe, of Alabama, and removed to that State. For some
reason my father did not accompany her, but remained with her
relatives in Virginia and was brought up by them. He lived first
with his uncle, John Richards Triplett, of Richmond, but later
with his mother's cousin, Mrs. Charles Smith, of Norfolk, whom
he always considered his real mother, and her children as his
brothers and sisters.
All these were people of the highest character, and from them
he imbibed those principles and standards of honor and integrity
which regulated his conduct through life. He had no collegiate
education, only the teachings of the best schools the country
afforded, but had a fine taste for reading and mental improve-
ment of every kind. Added to this he grew up strikingly hand-
some and with a grace of manner and distinction of appearance
which lasted him through life. I think no Virginian has ever
been accused of indifference to his native State, but my father's
attachment to Virginia was something particularly deep and
romantic. Nevertheless, at the age of twenty-two, he decided to
try his fortunes in Kentucky. He brought letters to the promi-
nent men in Frankfort, Hon. J. J. Crittenden, Hon. George M.
Bibb and others, and decided to remain in Frankfort and study

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