Seton, a Scotch friar and reformer, who took a prominent part in the Reformation, is given as in this sentence Bishop Burnett, writing almost contemporaneously, spells it Seaton, while in a Recantation, published by the friar himself in London in 1541, it is spelled Seyton.

Mr. Samuel W. Seton, for many years Superintendent of Education in New York city, an uncle to Archbishop Seton, told Samuel Seaton, of Greenup, Kentucky, many years ago, that there was originally only one family of the name. And many others have expressed the same opinion to the writer.

With one exception, all persons of the name with whom we have had any correspondence on the subject agree that their ancestors were descended from a Scotch family; so there can be no reason for a doubt, it seems to us, that we are all descended from one common ancestor, though Monsignor Seton claims the Setons were a Highland clan, while the Seatons were a great Lowland family. There is no reason to doubt the correctness of his claim, but our researches seem to prove that condition of affairs to have existed many generations after the foundation of the family. And even if it were originally so, we may console ourselves by reading "Tales of a Grandfather," by Scott, where it is said: 'But the Highlands and the Borders were so much wilder and more barbarous than the others [Lowlands] that they might be said to be altogether without law."

It has been explained that the name was spelled differently according to the locality. Those of the family who went to Germany during the troubles of the Stuarts spelled the name Seytoun; the emigrants to Ireland, and many of those who went to England, used the a, as do most of the name in America who are known to the writer either personally or by correspondence; though there are many who write the name Seton, and not a few spell their patronymic Seeton.

In Buchanan's History of Scotland, which was originally written in Latin and afterward translated into English by John Watkins, the name appears in each of several spellings; see pages 199, 201, 203, 306, 353, 393, 439, 446, 455, 457, 629, and 638.

In the Encyclopædia Britannica the name is spelled Seton, as

it is in Who's Who and Who's Who in America. In the former work the name appears in Vol. XI, pages 362, 690 and 712; in XIV, 670; XV, 597-598; and in XX at 593.

Sir Walter Scott uses one form of the name for several of his characters in his Scotch story, "The Abbot," where it is Seyton; and Shakespeare gives our name to one of his creations in Macbeth, where he gives it the same as Scott. In commenting on this fact, Monsignor Robert Seton says the name was almost always spelled in Shakespeare's time as he used it.

In a "Group of College Stories," one tale by Catharine Young Glen makes use of an Arch Seton as attending college at Windham. And Alice Louise Lee uses the name of President Seton of James Seton's School for Boys.

Abbott, in his Life of Mary Queen of Scots, uses the name of one of the Queen's maids of honor as Mary Seaton, but Monsignor Seton spells her name as he does his own, Seton.

But, after all has been said, the Seaton coat of arms, a copy of which was brought from Scotland to this country by way of Ireland when John Seaton came over in 1729, settles the question as to some of the family having used the name as we do now before they left Scotland.

However, the writer has no doubt that the original name was Seatoun, and has no desire to have it changed, since it has been. handed down to us unstained by criminal performances.

A few more words about names, and we will close the subject and leave it for each person who is interested in the matter to decide whether there was only one family of the name in the beginning of the family history, or whether there might have been as many families as there are spellings. We will also let each one concerned decide how the name should be spelled.

It was no very uncommon affair to change the family name in the early history of the Scottish nation. In fact, it has been stated that there were no family names, or surnames, except among the nobility, until many generations had passed away after the settlement of the country. But, in this connection, we read in the Bible that Simon's surname was Peter,-and that was at the beginning of the Christian era.

It is claimed that it was in the reign of Malcolm Canmore (1058– 1093) that surnames were first given indiscriminately to the favorites of the king.

Quite often, in the marriages of the upper classes, it occurred, where the bride was an heiress, that the groom would assume the surname and titles of the bride's family, after surnames had become somewhat common. As an instance apropos we might mention that Alexander of Seton, son of Sir William Seton, married Elizabeth of Gordon, the heiress of Sir Adam Gordon, about 1408, and was created Lord of Gordon about 1431. Their son took the name Gordon and was made Earl of Huntley, and Lord of Badenoch a few years later.

In several cases, where some one married a Seton heiress, the groom took the name Seton after the same fashion. Even in the royal family, Mary, daughter of King James V., was the first to spell the name Stuart according to the present custom. Before that time the name was Steward and later Stewart. A Norman baron had a son, Walter, who was a steward in the household of David I., King of Scotland. Afterward the name Steward became attached to his family and it was written Steward, or Stewart, until Mary went to France, when the form Stuart was adopted by her, and was continued in use by succeeding generations.

More than that, the name of the country was not known as Scotland until in the ninth century, when Kenneth Macalpine was king, having been called Caledonia before that time, at least by the Romans.

It has been considered a sure sign of high rank in the country to have possessed a surname as early as the beginning of the eleventh century, as most persons had only individual names at that time, which names were given as descriptive of the person, or some of his doings, after the custom of the American Indians of this country, at our first acquaintance with them, as well as the savages of all other countries.

The family Christian names, as well as surnames, follow in direct descent, though very irregularly, through many generations, often given from father to son, or from mother to daughter, and perhaps quite as frequently from uncle to nephew and from aunt to niece

and from grandparent to grandchildren. The names John, Andrew, James, and George, common enough even at the present, have descended from the earliest immigrants, as have those of Charles, William, Henry, Samuel, and Robert. The more common female Christian names in the family have been Margaret, Mary, Martha, Ann, and Elizabeth, of which the latter has been very much the most common of all names among the ladies who have married into the family circle.