Sir John Seton (letter writer)

Last updated

Sir John Seton was a Scottish aristocrat and soldier who wrote letters to his cousin Alexander Montgomerie, 6th Earl of Eglinton, previously known as Alexander Seton of Foulstruther.

Contents

Family and military background

The Earl of Eglinton had a brother, Sir John Seton of St Germains in East Lothian, who married Margaret Kellie. [1] He does not seem to have been the letter writer, as the Earl of Eglinton's brother, George Seton, 3rd Earl of Winton calls John Seton the correspondent their cousin. Letters from two cousins called Sir John Seton survive. [2]

Sir John Seton of the French King's Guard

John Seton, the letter writer, was a Lieutenant of the French Royal Guard, the Gardes Écossaises. There were three John Setons answering this description.

The Earl of Eglinton had a cousin, John Seton, the younger son of William Seton of Kylesmure, who is said to have served in France with Colonel Hepburn. [3]

Another cousin, John Seton, was a younger son of John Seton and Isabel Balfour of Carriston, at Star in Fife, and a grandson of George Seton, 6th Lord Seton. He married a daughter of the Comte de Bourbon (perhaps a daughter of Charles, Count of Soissons). Their only child was a daughter, who married the Hepburn laird of "Adinston" (possibly Hadddington) in East Lothian, a relative of the soldier John Hepburn. [4]

Another Scottish soldier of the Thirty Years War, Alexander Seaton, may have been his brother. [5]

Sir John Seton of Gargunnock

In July 1638 a Sir John Seton was in London and was asked by Sir Henry Bruce if he would serve in Scotland for Charles I against the Covenanters in the Bishop's War, he replied he would fight for the king but not in his own country, "where his life was". [6] The historian Steve Murdoch notes that this Seton was a Colonel in the Swedish army. [7]

Sir John Seton of Carchunoth had brought 1,200 Scottish recruits from the Dutch Republic to Bohemia in 1619. [8] Seton was the military governor of Třeboň in Bohemia in 1620, while Henry Bruce commanded Mikulov in Moravia. The governor of Hagelburg (in 1638), Colonel Thomas Thomson, another officer of the Gardes Écossaises, later partnered with John Clerk of Penicuik and bought soft furnishings in Paris for the Earl of Lothian. [9]

"Carchunoth" was Gargunnock in Stirlingshire. The commander in Bohemia was a member of the Seton of Touch branch of the family, and a more distant cousin of the Earl of Eglinton than the son of the lairds of Carriston or Kylesmure. Two Colonels, James Seton of Gargunnock (in Swedish service) and his brother John Seton or Seaton are recorded in this period. [10] Thomas Urquhart mentions these brothers in The Jewel, calling both "James".

Letters to the Earl of Eglinton

John Seton signs his name as "Johan Seton". [11] A letter of 1643 describing campaigns in Lancashire is also signed "Johan Seton". [12] The letters were published by the historian William Fraser in 1859 and 1885 and are now held by the National Records of Scotland. [13]

In a letter of 10 September 1634, John Seton mentions his niece Elizabeth Forrester. He wrote that he would be pleased to host Eglinton's children in London. His own son, the child of a German woman was at school in Prestonpans in Scotland. Seton hoped to buy an estate in Scotland. He sent news of the Thirty Years War. [14]

The other Sir John Seton wrote from France in November 1634, having hosted Eglinton's sons in Paris. One of the Eglinton children, Henry, was left in London in the care of the courtier and architect David Cunningham of Auchenharvie. [15]

John Seton sent "woman's bands" and other items of clothing for "her ladyship", Margaret Scott, in January 1642. The clothes were "very curious and of the newest sort of lace and making". He promised to send Eglinton the requested diamond, with hoods and masks for the ladies (Eglinton's daughters), silk stockings, garters, roses, gloves, and fans. Charles I had asked for Pym and Holles in Parliament. [16]

In April 1645 John Seton sent the Earl of Eglinton shopping from London, including white gloves and perfumed "sweet gloves", a silk waistcoat, and a bundle of lute strings. He sent news of Thomas Fairfax and Captain Cromwell and his hopes for the relief of Tauntondean. [17]

On 30 March 1646 he signed a receipt (as "Johan: Seton") on behalf of Baron Schomberg for a purse of gold coins bequeathed to him by his aunt in Edinburgh Mary Sutton, Countess of Home, and delivered by her executors the Earl of Lauderdale and Earl of Moray. The receipt was witnessed by the countess' footman Andrew Young. [18]

Related Research Articles

Earl of Eglinton

Earl of Eglinton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created by James IV of Scotland in 1507 for Hugh Montgomerie, 3rd Lord Montgomerie.

Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline Scottish judge and politician

Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline (1555–1622) was a Scottish lawyer, judge and politician. He served as Lord President of the Court of Session from 1598 to 1604, Lord Chancellor of Scotland from 1604 to 1622 and as a Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland.

Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram

Sir Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram, was a Scottish nobleman, English politician and writer.

Lord James Douglas

Lord James Douglas (1617–1645) was a Scottish nobleman and soldier.

Sir Robert de Lawedre (Lauder) of Edrington & The Bass, Knt., was a Burgess of Edinburgh and a confidant of King Robert III and sometime Guardian of his son, the future James I of Scotland.

Seton Palace

Seton Palace was situated in East Lothian, a few miles south-east of Edinburgh near the town of Prestonpans. Often regarded as the most desirable Scottish residence of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the palace was erected in the 15th century by George, 4th Lord Seton.

Susanna Montgomerie, Countess of Eglinton

Susanna Montgomerie, Countess of Eglinton was the third wife of Alexander Montgomerie, 9th Earl of Eglinton. She lived as a widow for nearly 51 years before dying at Auchans, Scotland in 1780, aged 90. She signed herself as S. Eglintoune.

Polnoon Castle

Polnoon Castle was a 14th-century fortification located on a motte beside the Polnoon Water in Millhall, in the Parish of Eaglesham, East Renfrewshire, Scotland.

George Seton III, 5th Lord Seton was a Scottish nobleman. He is sometimes referred to as the 3rd Lord Seton because he was the 3rd Lord Seton with the name of George.

George Seton IV, 6th Lord Seton was a Lord of the Parliament of Scotland.

George Seton, 7th Lord Seton

George Seton V, 7th Lord Seton (1531–1586), was a Lord of the Parliament of Scotland, Master of the Household of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Provost of Edinburgh. He was the eldest son of George Seton, 6th Lord Seton, and Elizabeth Hay, a daughter of John Hay, 3rd Lord Hay of Yester. His childhood and schooling were in France.

Alexander Montgomerie, 6th Earl of Eglinton (1588–1661) was a Scottish aristocrat and soldier, originally known as Sir Alexander Seton of Foulstruther.

Hugh Montgomerie, 7th Earl of Eglinton (1613–1669) was a Scottish landowner.

Helenor Hay, Countess of Linlithgow was a Scottish courtier and writer.

Anne or Anna Livingstone, Countess of Eglinton was a Scottish courtier and aristocrat, and lady-in-waiting to Princess Elizabeth and Anne of Denmark.

Patrick Drummond, 3rd Lord Drummond (1550–1600) was a Scottish landowner.

Hugh Montgomerie, 4th Earl of Eglinton (1563–1586) was a Scottish landowner.

Anna Hay, Countess of Winton

Anna Hay, Countess of Winton (1592-1628) was a Scottish courtier.

John Hay, 1st Earl of Tweeddale (1593–1653) was a Scottish aristocrat.

William Seton of Kylesmure

William Seton of Kylesmure (1562-1635) was a Scottish landowner, postmaster, Sheriff of Edinburgh, and administrator of the jointure lands of Anne of Denmark in Scotland.

References

  1. ↑ History of the House of Seytoun (Glasgow, 1829), pp. 73-4.
  2. ↑ William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 234, 236.
  3. ↑ History of the House of Seytoun (Glasgow, 1829), p. 68.
  4. ↑ John Burke, Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry, vol. 2 (London, 1850), p. 1213.
  5. ↑ Riis, Thomas (2004). "Seton, Alexander (fl. 1626–1649). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/63421 . Retrieved 3 August 2009.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ↑ David Laing, Letters of Robert Baillie, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1841), p. 72.
  7. ↑ Steve Murdoch & Alexia Grosjean, Alexander Leslie and the Scottish Generals of the Thirty Year's War, 1618-1648 (Routledge, 2014), p. 97.
  8. ↑ Josef Polišenský, 'Scottish Soldiers in the Bohemian War', Steve Murdoch, Scotland and the Thirty Years' War: 1618-1648 (Brill, 2001), p. 111.
  9. ↑ Andrew MacKillop & Steve Murdoch, Military Governors and Imperial Frontiers, 1600-1800: A Study of Scotland and Empires (Brill, 2003), map. 3: David Laing, Correspondence of the earls of Ancram and Lothian, vol. 1 (Edinburgh 1875), pp. 153-4, 157: NRS GD40/2/13.
  10. ↑ Thomas Heywood, Letter of Sir John Seton, 1643 (Manchester, 1862), p. 4, citing James Grant, Memoirs and Adventures of Sir John Hepburn (Edinburgh, 1851), p. 255.
  11. ↑ William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 235
  12. ↑ Thomas Heywood, Letter of Sir John Seton, 1643 (Manchester, 1862), p. 15.
  13. ↑ William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859): HMC Reports on various manuscripts: Eglinton (London, 1885), p. 3.
  14. ↑ William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 234-5: Fraser (1885), pp. 47-8 no. 136 abridged.
  15. ↑ William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 236-7.
  16. ↑ Fraser, 1 (1859), pp. 247-9: Fraser (1885), p. 51 no. 151.
  17. ↑ Fraser (1885), pp. 54-5 no. 151.
  18. ↑ National Records of Scotland, NRAS 217 Box 5 no. 292.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.