The ancestors of the Burns family lived among the Strathclyde-Briton people of the Scottish/English Borderlands. Burns is a name for someone who lived in the county of Cumberland. On the onset, it is best first to establish that the family name Burns is in fact a Clan rather than a Sept of the Campbell Clan. A Roll of the Clans and Chiefs in 1597 shows the Burns Clan as having territories in the eastern Border marches of Scotland in East Teviotdale.
 
They were described as an unruly Clan. However, to relate the origins of this great Clan, we must go back to the year 1329, when their territories were located in the parish of Glenbervie. They had moved into these lands during the reign of King Edward I of England, from Burneshead, Cumberland, sometime around 1296.
 
The surname Burns was first found in Cumberland, where the original name was Burness. Even Robert Burns (famed Scottish poet and lyricist) and his brother both agreed to shorten their name to Burns due to the difficulty to pronounce it in the Gaelic tongue. Later, the name was also spelled Bourne, Burn and even Bernes.