The Heiress Margaret de Seton and Alan De Winton

Lady Margaret Seton was forcibly abducted in the year 1347 by a neighboring baron named Alan de Winton, a distant kinsman of her own and a cadet of the Seton family. Andrew Wyntoun relates the case in his Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, saying: "Dat yhere Alene de Wyntoun tuk the yhoung Lady Setoun and weddit hyr than till hys wyf." This outrage caused a bloody contest in Lothian; on which occasion, says Fordun, a hundred ploughs were laid aside from labor. In a ballad entitled "Alan of Winton and the Heiress of Seton," we find some good verses, and in one of the stanzas an allusion to the family Crest:

"One hundred ploughs unharnessed lie.
The dusky collier leaves his mines.
A Seton ?? is the gathering cry.
And far the fiery Dragon shines."

A romantic incident of this affair--the opposition springing, perhaps, from selfish motives on the part of her guardian--is that when Margaret was rescued and Alan confronted with the Seton family, she was handed a ring and a dagger, with permission to give him either Love or Death. She gave him the ring, and they were happy ever afterward.  Alan de Winton assumed his wife's name, and died in the Holy Land, leaving besides a daughter Christian de Seton who became Countess of Dunbar and March, three sons:  1st Sir William Seton, his successor and 1st Lord Seton; 2nd Alexander Seton who married Jean Halyburton, daughter of Sir Thomas Halyburton of Dirleton (recorded by Alexander Nisbet); and Henry who retained his father's name and inherited Wrychthouses.  One of the oldest stones of this mansion bears the Seton's arms.  Henry de Winton married Amy Brown of Coalston and continued the family name of Winton.  Henry was one of the heroes of Otterburn, August 19, 1388.  Friossart calls him :The Seigneur de Venton" (Wintoun, Francisque Michel). Sources: "The History of the House of Seytoun to the Year MDLIX", Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, Knight, with the Continuation, by Alexander Viscount Kingston, to MDCLXXXVII. Printed at Glasgow, MDCCCXXIX. "A History of the Family of Seton during Eight Centuries" George Seton, Advocate, M.A. Oxon., etc. Two vols. Edinburgh, 1896 "An Old Family" Monsignor Seton, Call Number: R929.2 S495