land (ib. p. 693). In April 1583 the commissioner of the synod of Lothian complained against him to the king for entertaining a seminary priest (ib. p. 704), but the accusation came to nothing, and in October the king manifested his entire confidence in him by sending him on an embassy to France (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iii. 604). He died on 8 Jan. 1584–5, soon after his return from France, aged about 55.
The Setons, on account of the large number of noble families descended from them, were styled ‘Magnæ Nobilitatis Domini,’ and, owing to their intermarriages with the royal family, their shield obtained the addition of the royal or double tressure. The fifth lord is said to have declined an earldom, regarding it as a greater distinction to be Lord Seton, whereupon King James is reputed to have commended his resolution in the following Latin epigram:
Sunt comites, alii ducesque, sunt denique reges:
Setoni Dominus sit satis esse mihi.
By his wife Isabel, daughter of Sir William Hamilton of Sanquhar, high treasurer of Scotland, he had one daughter, Margaret, married to Lord Claud Hamilton, and five sons: George, master of Seton, who died in March 1562; Robert, sixth lord Seton, who was a special favourite of James VI, and on 16 Nov. 1600 was created Earl of Winton; Sir John Seton, lord Barns [q. v.]; Alexander, prior of Pluscardine and afterwards Earl of Dunfermline [q. v.]; and Sir William Seton Kyllismore, sheriff of Midlothian, and postmaster-general of Scotland.
A painting of Lord Seton and his family, by Sir Anthony Mor or More [q. v.], has been frequently engraved.
[Histories of Knox and Calderwood; Moysie's Memoirs, Lord Herries' Memoirs, and Sir James Melville's Memoirs in the Bannatyne Club; Reg. P. C. Scotl. i.–iii.; Cal. State Papers, Scot. Ser. and For. Ser. reign of Elizabeth; Sir Richard Maitland's History of the House of Seton, with continuation by Viscount Kingston in the Bannatyne Club; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 644–5.]
SETON, GEORGE, third Earl of Winton (1584–1650), second son of Robert Seton, first earl of Winton, by Margaret, daughter of Hugh Montgomerie, third earl of Eglinton, was born in December 1584. His brother, Alexander, took the surname of Montgomerie, and became in 1611 sixth Earl of Eglinton [q. v.] George succeeded to the earldom of Winton in 1607, in the lifetime of his elder brother, who resigned the title and estates in his favour. In accordance with the old traditions of his family, he entertained James VI at Seton Palace, on his visit to Scotland in 1617, and also twice entertained Charles I in 1633. In 1620 he erected the additional residence of Winton Castle in Pencaitland parish, Haddingtonshire, an original and remarkably striking modification of Tudor architecture. He was referred to by John Maxwell [q. v.], bishop of Ross, and afterwards archbishop of Tuam, in 1638, as ‘popishly affected’ (Balfour, Annals, ii. 263), and though he took no prominent part in public affairs, seems to have generally favoured the king. He supported the engagement for the king's rescue in 1648, and gave to the commander-in-chief, the Duke of Hamilton, 1,000l. in free gift for his equipage. He died at Seton on 15 Dec. 1650 of a palsy, and ‘was interred among his ancestors in the church there without any funeral solemnity’ (ib. iv. 255). By his first wife, Lady Anne Hay, eldest daughter of Francis, eighth earl of Errol, he had, with three daughters, four sons: George, lord Seton, who having joined Montrose shortly after the battle of Kilsyth, was taken prisoner at Philiphaugh, but was finally liberated on a bond of 100,000l., and died at Seton in 1648, leaving, with other children, a son George, lord Seton (d. 1648), whose son George became fourth earl of Winton (d. 1704); Charles; Alexander, viscount Kingston [q. v.]; and Francis. By his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John, lord Herries, he had, with five daughters, four sons: Christopher, William, John, and Robert.
[Balfour's Annals; Spalding's Memorialls and Gordon's Scots Affairs in the Spalding Club; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 643–4.]
SETON, GEORGE, fifth Earl of Winton (d. 1749), was the son of George, fourth earl of Winton, by his second wife, Christian, daughter of John Hepburn of Alderston. The father, though only ten years of age when in 1650 he succeeded his grandfather, George Seton, third earl of Winton [q. v.], was fined 2,000l. under Cromwell's act of grace. He left Scotland at an early age, and for some time served in the French army. Returning to Scotland, he was employed by Charles I against the covenanters, and commanded a regiment at Pentland in 1666, and at Bothwell Bridge in 1679. At his death in 1704 the son George, fifth earl, was abroad, and as he had ceased to correspond with his friends in Scotland, his residence was unknown. Before his return his right to the earldom was questioned by his cousin, Viscount Kingston [see under Seton, Alexander, (1621?–1691)], the marriage of
