CHAPTER XV.

THE FAMILY IN AMERICA.

"THE family is the first institution and lies at the basis of everything that is good in society," says C. H. Parkhurst, D. D. Then let us study the history of our family and try to improve wherein our ancestors may have done amiss in the past, or at least maintain the record of sobriety, patriotism, and honor handed down to us.

It ought to be an inspiration to every one to know he has descended from a long line of upright, intelligent men and women, and vicious indeed is the one who would intentionally bring reproach upon a name that has been maintained in honor for many generations.

"Seek not the idle fame derived from dead ancestors," as Scott says, but put forth your best efforts to so live that the world may be made better in some degree by your having lived in it, is fit advice for children in this and all coming generations of the family.

The same fate that made you Scotch by descent gave you head and heart and hands to uphold the good name so nobly handed. down to you by a long line of honorable ancestors, no one of whom, so far as we have learned, was ever the inmate of a penitentiary. Those of our name and blood who have suffered confinement or death at the hands of the law have done so through the efforts of the enemies of their king or country for fighting in defense of the one or the other.

"It were a great pleasure," says Maitland, "to a man to know the origin and beginning of his house and surname, and how long it has stood, with good actions and virtue of his predecessors."

Should anyone claim the Seatons have not always been loyal, brave, and honorable citizens of their respective countries, you

Hottens

may, with a clear conscience, tell him as Marmion told Douglas of old:

"And if thou saidst I am not peer

To any lord in Scotland here,
Lowland, or Highland, far or near,
Lord Angus, thou hast lied."

And to the best of our knowledge and belief, no man has ever found a mistress of the Seaton name or blood.

Both tradition and history declare that the Seaton family originated in Scotland, as has already been explained, and George Buchanan and John Watkins's History of that country is especially explicit on that point; and to prove their competency as witnesses we will quote from Reverend Allan Menzie's History of the Church of Scotland, as follows:

"One of the best Latin scholars that modern Europe has produced was George Buchanan. His last and most important labor was his History of Scotland, originally printed in 1582, of which there have appeared seventeen editions."

So much for the man who lived with and wrote of the ancestors of our family and the people of whom they formed no unworthy part.

George Buchanan had the direction of the later education of James I. of England, who was also James VI. of Scotland, he who authorized the translation of the Bible.

THE FIRST SEATON IN AMERICA.

In the "Virginia Historical Magazine," volume 6, page 406, under the head of "Virginia Land Patents," is to be found the earliest record of a Seaton in this country, so far as we know; mention being made of 1200 acres of land on the north side of the James river, the patent issued July 12, 1637, in consideration of the transportation of twenty-four persons by Harvey. Among the names is to be found that of "Jon." Seaton, who is doubtless the John Seton mentioned on page 196 of "An Old Family" as the sixth child of Sir David Seton of Parbroath, who went from London to Virginia on August 7, 1635.

Hotter's "Our Early Emigrant Ancestors" says that "Jo."

Seaton sailed August 7, 1635, on the ship "Globe," and that he was nineteen years old at that time.

In "The Genesis of the United States," by Alexander Brown, is an extract from the record of the Stationers' Company of the City of London, dated "1609, 7th mo.," which shows that a Mr. Seton was a member of the "Stationers," and was one of those among whom £125, to be used in the Company's adventure in the voyage to Virginia, was levied and disbursed. Mr. Seton's share was three pounds.

In the Virginia Historical Magazine, volume 2, page 280, it is recited in a long deed in Stafford county, dated March 8, 1759, from William Fitzhugh, of Calvert county, Maryland, to Bailey Washington, of Stafford county, Virginia, that Richard Carey and George Seaton obtained a patent in 1662 for six thousand acres of land on the Potomac, in Westmoreland county, which had been granted in 1659 to Mr. Hugh Gwinne, who sold it to said Seaton and Thomas Morris; that Morris and his wife Mary sold their share to said Carey, etc. Carey's will, dated November 29, 1682, is referred to, and discloses the fact that George Seaton was then dead and that he left heirs.

This George Seaton may probably be safely considered as a son of Jon. Seaton mentioned heretofore, as least until we learn more of them.

HENRY SEATON, son of the Honorable John Seaton of Garleton, or Gairmiltoun, in East Lothian, Scotland, or of John Seton, son of Sir David Seton of Parbroath, with others of the family, were devoted adherents of the Stuarts of Scotland "for whose throne they had unflinchingly fought in opposition to the Prince of Orange," making themselves somewhat noticeable to the government of England by their Jacobite schemes for its overthrow in Scotland. Finally, convinced of the futility of any further resistance to the authority of William III., Henry Seaton and a number of his co-workers sought refuge in the wilds of America, locating in the Colony of Virginia in 1690.

In volume I, page 479, of the Virginia Historical Magazine, a George Seaton is mentioned as a Justice of the Peace of Gloucester county and as having taken part with the insurgents in Bacon's

Rebellion; and it is further stated that some of his descendants probably lived in King William county, and that W. W. Seaton of the National Intelligencer was of the latter family. This may or may not have been the George Seaton mentioned as of Westmoreland county; but the inference that he may have been George Seaton, son of Henry, the ancestor of W. W. Seaton of the National Intelligencer, appears to be very doubtful.

Henry Seaton settled first in Gloucester county, where others of the name had been located since 1637, and who may have been, and probably were, relatives, who had influenced the decision of Henry as to a proper starting-place for a home, the Pyanketank seeming to be the most eligible site for that purpose. For some years Henry Seaton continued to reside upon the banks of the Pyanketank, in Gloucester county, during which period, in 1709, he was married to Elizabeth Todd, daughter of a gentleman of standing in that county, and had issue.

Mr. George Fitzhugh, of Rappahannock, a gentleman remarkable for his wit and abstruse learning, in his papers on the "Valleys of Virginia," quotes Bishop Mead's list of the early justices and Vestrymen,-at that time offices of mark,-among whom, in Pentworth Parish, Gloucester county, were mentioned Henry, Richard and Bailey Seaton, and says: "None but men of substance and consideration were made vestrymen," and the reader will find that the descendants of these gentlemen have retained their high social position.

Henry Seaton subsequently removed to an estate in King William County, on the Mattapony, which for several generations continued to be the home of his descendants.

By a deed a century and a half old, in possession of the family "An Indenture Tripartite, made in the first year of the reign of 'our most gracious Sovereign, Lord and King, George the Second,' between Colonel Taylor, George Seaton, only son and heir of Henry Seaton, and Elizabeth his wife, now the wife of Augustine Moore, Gentleman," we learn that Henry Seaton's widow had remarried.

Henry and Elizabeth Seaton had been blessed with only one child before the death of the former, and to him had been given the name of George Seaton.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE ONLY CHILD OF HENRY AND ELIZABETH SEATON.

GEORGE SEATON, the only child of Henry Seaton, was born on the family estate on the Mattapony, in Virginia, on December 11, 1711, and of course was given all the advantages of the then new country in the way of an education. We have no extended account of his boyhood, but on December 27, 1734, when he was twenty-three years old, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Leonard Hill, of King William county, Virginia, gentleman. He seems to have succeeded in a financial way, holding large properties in Spottsylvania county, besides the paternal estates, which at his death in 1750 were left to his eldest son, after the legal fashion of the country as a royal colony of England. The daughters and the younger son must have been compelled to be satisfied without any of the real estate belonging to the family.

The names of the children, according to the old family Bible, were, in the order of their birth: Elizabeth, Augustine, George 2d, and Betty, of the record, but Elizabeth in the Biographical Sketch of her nephew, William Winston Seaton.

THE CHILDREN OF GEORGE AND ELIZABETH SEATON.

Elizabeth Seaton, the first child in the family, was born December 19, 1735. Further than this we know nothing more of her, except that she died December 9, 1738, but we surmise that she was born at the estate on the Mattapony, where her grandfather, Henry Seaton, had established his home in 1709.

AUGUSTINE SEATON, son of George, was evidently born at the same Virginian home as his sister. His birthday was October 17, 1737. The facts in our possession regarding the early life of Augustine Seaton are very meager, indeed, but from the nature