Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/271

 standing army, that he might be able, on the death of the queen of England, to make good his rights to the succession (ib. p. 282). On the accession of James to the throne, Prince Charles—afterwards Charles I—who was not deemed strong enough to be removed south, remained in Seton's charge; and after the queen's removal to England Seton was appointed a commissioner for the management of her property in Scotland (ib. p. 537). On 12 Jan. 1604 he was named vice-chancellor, to represent the king in parliament in the absence of the chancellor (Reg. P. C. Scotl. vi. 596), and by the parliament which met at Perth in July he was appointed one of the commissioners for the union with England. Here his masterly knowledge of all legal details, combined with a strongly independent judgment, was of invaluable service to the Scottish commissioners in the arrangements as to trading privileges and interests. It was therefore found advisable that he should be made chancellor instead of Montrose, who accepted the nominal dignity of commissioner for his majesty for life. He resigned the presidentship of the court of session on being made chancellor, and he was also (6 March 1606) created Earl of Dunfermline. So highly was the nation gratified with the result of his services on the commission that on his return to Edinburgh he was ‘convoyed with many people of all ranks’ after a manner ‘no subject was seen before to come accompanied to Edinburgh’ (, vi. 274).

Although the ecclesiastical leanings of Dunfermline were apparently catholic, he was not supposed to be specially favourable to the establishment of an episcopacy. The mild measures adopted by him against the Aberdeen assembly of July 1605 may, however, have been due mainly to inadvertence; and the supposition that he had in any sense connived at its deliberations, as the episcopalians insinuated, is extremely improbable. Nevertheless, the king ordered that the charge against him should be strictly investigated; but a dignified letter from the chancellor, in which he forcibly represented the absurdity of the charge, sufficed to defeat the purpose of his enemies. The king, with the shrewd common-sense which, however uncertain in its operation, usually stood him in good stead in important emergencies, and with the unblushing disregard of legality in which he took special delight, affirmed that he ‘would not have him convicted,’ nor would he put him out of office although ‘the matter were proven’ (see especially the summary of the evidence by Professor Masson in footnote to Reg. P. C. Scotl. vii. 493–496). Probably the king was moved by the desire for, or promise of, Dunfermline's co-operation in the Red parliament, which met at Perth shortly afterwards, when, mainly through the management of Dunfermline and Dunbar, acts were passed ‘anent the king's majesty's prerogative’ and ‘anent the restitution of bishops.’

On account, it would seem, of Dunfermline's supposed sympathies with Lord Balmerino [see, first ], the king in 1608 wrote to the town council requesting that, instead of re-electing Dunfermline as provost, they should elect one of their own neighbours. The council disregarded this advice; but, learning that the king was deeply offended, they with Dumfermline's consent, and probably at his suggestion, permitted him to resign, and elected Sir John Arnot in his stead (, vi. 819). In October of the following year he paid a visit to the king in England, when he was chosen a member of the English privy council. On the death of Dunbar, in January 1611, Dunfermline and others of the council, says Calderwood, took journey to London, ‘fearing alteration, and every man seeking his own particular’ (ib. vii. 154). In the purpose of their journey they were successful. Dunfermline inherited Dunbar's place of authority and influence in the king's counsels, and when in London obtained the custody of the palace and park of Holyrood, and was named one of the new Octavians (ib. p. 158). In October of the following year he acted as the king's commissioner at the parliament of Edinburgh, in which the act of 1592, establishing presbyterianism, was rescinded. He died at his seat of Pinkie House, near Musselburgh, on 16 June 1622, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.

Dunfermline was thrice married. By his first wife, Lilias, second daughter of Patrick, third lord Drummond, and sister of James, first earl of Perth, he had five daughters: Anne, married to Alexander, viscount Fenton, only son of Thomas, first earl of Kellie; Isabel, married to John, first earl of Lauderdale; Margaret, died in infancy; another Margaret, married to Colin, first earl of Seaforth; and Sophia, married to David, first Lord Lindsay of Balcarres. By his second wife, Grizel Leslie, fourth daughter of James, master of Rothes, he had a son Charles, who died young, and two daughters—Lilias, unmarried, and Jean, married to John, eighth lord Yester. By his third wife, Margaret Hay, sister of John, first earl of Tweeddale, he had a son, Charles, second earl of Dunfermline [q. v.], and two