CHAPTER IX. "JOHN, SECOND LORD SETON, was intended for the Heiress of Gordon, but secretly wedded Janet Dunbar, daughter of the Earl of March, much to his father's displeasure. He had one son by her, who predeceased him, and three daughters. Lord Seton was appointed Master of the Household by King James I., and was sent on a mission to France. He is described as a good fighter and a great hater of the English, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Homildon Hill, in 1402. He had several safe-conducts to England between 1409 and 1421, and died about 1441, when he was buried in his mother's chantry at Seton Church. "His daughters were disposed of as follows: Christian married Norman Leslie of Rothes, by papal dispensation from the fourth degree of consanguinity, obtained in December, 1415; Janet married Sir Robert Keith, son of the Earl Marischal; Marian married Sir William Baillie of Laminton, in Lanarkshire, now represented by Baillie of Dochfour, County Inverness, and in Ireland by Baillie of Ringdufferin, County Down." William, Master of Seton (eldest son of a baron) "first appears in a charter which he witnessed in 1423, where he is described as 'William Seton, son and heir of John, Lord Seton.'" In the wars of France there were Scotchmen on both sides. An Alexander Seton, who cannot now be identified, took forty lances and forty men-at-arms to the assistance of King Henry V. in 1421. The Master of Seton accompanied the Scotch Auxiliaries to the assistance of the French, and after sharing in the victory of Bauge was slain at the bloody battle of Verneuil, August 17, 1424. By his wife, whose name is unrecorded, William, Master of Seton, left a son George, who succeeded his grandfather, and two daughters: Catharine, who married Alan Stuart of Darnley, and was mother of the first Earl of Lennox; and Janet, who married John, second Lord Haliburton. From a work on "The Scots Guards in France," by Father William Forbes-Leith, S. J., Robert Seton gives an account of some matters of family interest not found elsewhere: "As early as the first dispatch of Scotch Auxiliaries to France, two Setons, Thomas and his brother, are found each at the head of a company of men-at-arms and archers, and were 'conspicuous amongst the most faithful followers of the Dauphin. Thomas was favored with the estate of Lingeais and appointed to accompany Charles wherever he went.' Sir Thomas Seton was killed a few years later, before the fortress of Cravant. To conclude a short digression, Setons are found officers and gentlemen-privates in this celebrated corps [the Scots Guards] from 1419 to 1679, the last of our name on the list and muster-rolls being David Seton, Brigadier." "GEORGE, THIRD LORD SETON, succeeded to the title and estates while still a minor, 'being bot nyne yeirs of age,' and was secured as a rich prize by Sir William Crichton, the powerful but unscrupulous Lord Chancellor, who then held possession of Edinburgh Castle. When George grew up he accompanied Crichton, who, after all, could not have meant him wrong, on an embassy to France and Burgundy, and had a safe-conduct to pass through England, April 23, 1448. He was very tall and handsome, a good scholar, and an accomplished courtier. He made a great match, marrying Lady Margaret Stewart, only daughter and heiress of the gallant John, Earl of Buchan, younger son of Robert, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, and grandson of King Robert II., of which branch of the royal Stuarts the Setons are the only representatives. For his victory at Bauge 22d March, 1421, the earl was made Constable of France. His wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Archibald, fourth Earl of Douglas in Scotland, and Duke of Touraine in France. He was one of the foremost warriors of his time." By this marriage Lord Seton had a son called John, of whom hereafter, and a daughter Christian, who married Hugh Douglas of Corehead. This lord kept a great house, and was given to entertaining. He restored and embellished the parish church of Seton. "After he had lived a long and honorable life," says Maitland, "he died in the Convent of Black Friars (Dominicans) at Edinburgh, and was buried in the choir of their church. He left them, by will, twenty marks to be paid annually out of his estate of Hartsyde, in Berwickshire." "JOHN, MASTER OF SETON, died during the lifetime of his father, and was buried in the parish church of Seton. He married Christian, daughter of the first Lord Lindsay of the Byres, by whom he had three sons and a daughter, who married the second Lord Lyle. The eldest son, George, succeeded his grandfather; the next son was John, who had a son killed by robbers in Annandale while returning, with too small an escort, from a military expedition into England; the youngest son was Alexander, who had, besides a son called John, Baillie of Tranent, who married and had issue, a daughter Christian, who was wedded to Preston of Whitehill." GEORGE, FOURTH LORD SETON, succeeded his grandfather, and exemplified in his person the hereditary love of learning in his family. Maitland says: "He was much given to letters, and was cunning in divers sciences, as in astrology, music, and theology. He was so devoted to study that even after his marriage he went to the University of Saint Andrew's, and after a while to that of Paris, to prosecute his researches." Between 1485 and 1503 he was engaged in the public affairs of the kingdom, while at the same time devoting considerable attention to his patrimonial estates, with a fine eye to architecture and to the dignity of religion. In this line he built Winton House, and laid out the garden and park around it; but his most enduring memorial is the Collegiate Church of Seton. A Church of Seton, Ecclesia de Seetbun. is mentioned as early as 1242, and the Rev. Joseph Stevenson, S. J., discovered "a presentation of the Church of Seyton, in the year 1296." It must have been a considerable church even before it was made collegiate by papal authority, because a Brief of Pope Paul II., in 1456, which is preserved among the treasures of the society of Antiquaries at Edinburgh, mentions the "Provost of Seton-Prepositus de Seton." Schools of elementary instruction were almost always attached to these old Scottish churches. There exists in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh a Brief of "This little church, whose original pile was very ancient, is situated near the sea-coast of Scotland, about twelve miles below Edinburgh, and rears itself close to the mansion-house of the Setons. It enclosed for many centuries their family tomb, and received from them whatever decorations, endowments, furniture of sacred vessels, and ornaments they imagined could add to its magnificence. The present structure was erected in the thirteenth century, and King Robert I. granted to the town of Seton the liberty of having a weekly market every holiday after mass,' when the traders would expose their goods in booths beside the church, where the presence of the clergy and the sanctity of the place, under the invocation of Our Lady and Saint Bennet (Benedict), patron of the family, tended to preserve order among the people and justice in their dealings. In the year 1493 it was made a collegiate establishment for a provost, six prebendaries, two singing-boys, and a clerk, to whose support George, Lord Seton, assigned the tithes of the church and various chaplainries which had been founded in it by his ancestors. At later dates other members of the family made additions to the edifice, multiplied its ornaments, increased its wealth, and raised within it some sumptuous monuments. In 1544 the English invaders, while destroying the neighboring castle, desecrated the church; and after removing the bells, organ, and other portable objects to their ships, burnt the beautiful timberwork within. The church was soon restored, and during the commotions of the Reformation had the good fortune to escape almost uninjured. It remained. perfect until the Stuart troubles of 1715, when the Hanoverian |