George Seton, 6th Lord Seton
He succeeded his father in 1553, and was “a good, wise, and virtuous man.” This lord repaired the older parts of Niddry Castle, in his Barony of Wynchburgh, and enlarged it. The top of the old square tower was seen until the early 20th century, now gone. It is and imposing ruin, built in a good position, on a slight eminence which rises more abruptly on the north side, where the narrow brook called Niddry Burn once wound around it.A level piece of ground covering two acres, and formerly the castle garden, is surrounded by an old square wall whose four gates are set each exactly opposite the other. Two of them are arched and ornamented. The farm buildings are also old, and on one is surmounted the monogram G.H.S. for George Seton (the seventh lord) and (Isabel) Hamilton his wife.
Maitland describes this lord a much given to manly games and out-door sports, especially hawking, and says that he was reputed to be “the best falconer in his day.” On November 17, 1533, he appears in public life as an extraordinary Lord among the Senators of the College of Justice, an institution which had only been founded the preceding year. In 1542 he was associated with the Lords Huntly and Home in the command of a strong force organized to watch the operations of the English troops, while King James V himself assembled a large army at Edinburgh. In March, 1543, he was intrusted with the Keeping of Cardinal Beaton, who was accused of a treasonable correspondence with France. In May, 1544, Seton Castle was burnt, and thechurch greatly injured by the English invaders, who carried away everything they could. This unfortunate nobleman died on July 17, 1549, at the Abbey of Culross, and was buried in the choir, because the English then garrisoned Haddington and harried the lands of the Barons round about. When they evacuated the country, his body was conveyed to Seton by his wife and a large company of kinsmen and friends to be entombed in his own church.
The 6th Lord was twice married. His first wife – 1527 – was Elizabeth Hay, eldest daughter of John, third Lord Yester, by whom he had two boys and five girls. The eldest son, George, succeeded as seventh Lord Seton. John, the second son, founded the Seton’s of Cariston by marrying Isabel, Heiress of David Balfour of Cariston, in the County of Fife, “of a very old-standing family,” which is traced back to Sir Michael Balfour, who died 1344. Of the five daughters, Beatrix married George, eldest son and heir of Sir Walter Ogilvy of Dunlugus. Their grandson was created a peer in 1642 as Baron Ogilvy of Banff, for his eminent services in the royal cause. The title is dormant since 1803.
Helen (Maitland says Elaenor) married Hugh, who succeeded as seventh Lord Somerville, a peerage created in 1430 and dormant since 1872.
Lord Seton married, secondly, a French woman of noble birth, Lady Mary Pyeris, who came to Scotland in the suite of Mary of Lorraine, daughter of the Duke of Guise and second wife of King James V, by whom she was the mother of the ill-fated Mary, Queen of Scots. By this foreign marriage, something most unusual at that time and in Scotland, Lord Seton had two sons, Robert and James, who left no descendants, and an only daughter, Mary, who was one of the Four Maries (of Queen Mary Stuart’s fame).