Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/272

 daughters—Grizel, unmarried, and Mary, died young.

The best testimony to Dunfermline's character is found in the fact that Spotiswood, who did everything possible to work his overthrow, admits that he ‘exercised his place with great moderation, and to the contentment of all honest men;’ and that, although ‘inclining to the Roman faith,’ he was ‘very observant of good order, and one that hated lying and dissimulation, and above all things studied to maintain peace and quietness.’ Calderwood expresses virtually the same opinion: ‘He was a good justicier, courteous and humane, both to strangers and to his own country people, but no good friend to the bishops.’

Dunfermline is supposed to have been the architect of his own mansions. He in great part rebuilt Fyvie Castle, Aberdeenshire, in which he introduced the French arch. He also built the principal part of Pinkie House. Dempster assigns to Dunfermline the authorship of ‘Orationes Solemnibus aliquot Festis coram Pontifice;’ but this is a mere magnification of the statement that, while a youth, he delivered one single oration before the pope. Two of his Latin epigrams are prefixed to Bishop Lesley's ‘History of Scotland.’ He also addressed an epigram to Sir John Skene [q. v.] on the publication of his treatise ‘Regiam Majestatem.’ A Latin epitaph by him in commemoration of his parents is in Seton church.

A half-length portrait of Dunfermline, by Zucchero, is at York, and he is included in the group of the Seton family by Sir Anthony Mor or More [q. v.]

[Reg. P. C. Scotl.; Histories of Spotiswood and Calderwood; Cal. State Papers, Scotland, For. Ser. during the reign of Elizabeth, and Dom. Ser. during the reign of James I; Brunton and Haig's Senators of the College of Justice; Sir Richard Maitland's History of the House of Seton in the Bannatyne Club; George Seton's Memoir of Alexander Seton, Earl of Dunfermline, 1882; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 480–1.]  SETON, ALEXANDER, sixth (1588–1661). [See .]

SETON, ALEXANDER, (1621?–1691), born about 1621, was the third son of George, third earl of Winton [q. v.], by his first wife, Lady Anne Hay, eldest daughter of Francis, eighth earl of Errol. On the visit of Charles I to Seton Palace in 1633, Alexander Seton, a youth of twelve, welcomed the king in a formal Latin oration. In 1636 he went to study at La Flèche in France, and afterwards he made a tour through a great part of France, Italy, and Spain. He returned to Scotland in 1640, but, to avoid subscribing the covenant, went in 1643 to Holland. Venturing to return some time afterwards, and still declining to subscribe, he was excommunicated in Tranent church on 8 Oct. 1644. He then crossed over to France, where for some time he remained in attendance on the young Prince Charles. After the coronation of Charles II at Scone, he was created Viscount Kingston and Lord Craigiehall by patent dated at Perth Saturday, the 4th day of January 1651 (, Annals, iv. 251). He wrote a continuation of Sir Richard Maitland's ‘History of the House of Seton’ (Bannatyne Club). He died on 21 Oct. 1691. By his first wife, Jean, daughter of Sir George Fletcher, he had a daughter, Jean Seton, married to James, third lord Mordington. By his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Archibald Douglas of Whittinghame, he had three daughters and six sons. The sons were: Charles, master of Kingston; George; Alexander; Archibald, second viscount Kingston; John; and James, third and last viscount Kingston, who, for his share in the rebellion of 1715, was attainted by parliament. He was further married to Elizabeth Hamilton, third daughter of John, first lord Belhaven, and to Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Archibald, earl of Angus, but left no issue by either of these marriages.

[Balfour's Annals; extracts from the Family Bible in Dunse Castle, in Sir Richard Maitland's Genealogy of the House and Surname of Seton, 1830; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 39.]

 SETON, ALEXANDER,  (1639?–1719), Scottish judge, born about 1640, was younger son of James Seton of Pitmedden (killed at the battle of Bridge of Dee, June 1639) and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Samuel Johnston of Elphinston. He was admitted an advocate of the Scottish bar on 10 Dec. 1661, and was knighted by Charles II in 1664. He was nominated an ordinary lord of the court of session on 31 Oct. 1677, on the death of Sir Richard Maitland of Pittrichie, and took his seat as Lord Pitmedden on 13 Nov. 1677. He was also admitted a lord of justiciary on 5 July 1682, on the promotion of Lord-president Falconer, and was created a baronet of Nova Scotia on 15 Jan. 1684. He represented the county of Aberdeen in parliament in 1681, 1685, and 1686, and gave deep offence by the boldness with which he opposed the mea-