Robert Seton, First Earl of Winton.
Born in 1553, the first Earl of Winton grew up active in the affairs of his father and of the State. He was educated early in France, and accompanied his father during his ambassadorships to France during the reign of Queen Mary and was, like his father, strongly attached to the family loyalty to the Queen and to the Royal House of Stuart; he was part of his father’s rescue party for Queen Mary at Lochleven and present during the battle of Langside thereafter, in 1568, though a youth, and grew up a close childhood friend of the Queen’s son, the young King James VI. As a result of their friendship, of course, he was part of the party who rescued King James from the hands of the Douglas’, and supported his monarch during the Gowrie incident and others of the time.
On the death of his father, George, seventh Lord Seton, in 1585, Robert succeeded as eighth Lord Seton. Although his father left the estates heavily encumbered by reason of the great expense of several embassies and of his losses suffered by adhering to the Queen’s party, yet by prudence and ability he was soon able to put his affairs in good condition and provide both sons and daughters with respectable fortunes. “He was very hospitable, and kept a noble house, the king and queen being frequently there, and all French and other ambassadors and strangers of quality were nobly entertained.” He was a favorite with the king, and was created Earl of Winton with solemnity and pomp of banners, standards, and pennons, inscribed with loyal mottos and quaint devices at Holyrood House, on the 16th of November, 1600. He was a great builder and a wise improver of his property, especially by working on the old harbor of Cockenzie, along the Firth of Forth, a curious fishing village of great antiquity whose history is little known. It originally sheltered only small boats, but when improved by art and accommodated vessels of a larger size. In January, 1599, the king granted him a charter unde the Great Seal of Scotland concerning Cockenzie, which had previously been erected into a “free port and burgh of barony.” Adhering to the Catholic religion, the Earl and his family suffered indignities from the Presbytery of Haddington, as may be seen by the Records. One entry reads thus:
“1597. Setoun Kirk. The Presbitery asked Lord Setoun if he will suffer them to sit in the Kirk of Setoun for the space of two or three days, because they are to ‘gang about’ all the churches within their bounds; but this his Lordship altogether refused.”
Protestant worship has never been held in Seton Church, as after the family conformed they attended the Tranent parish church, leaving their own church deserted, as it has remained ever since.
In 1582, Lord Seton, as he then was, married Lady Margaret Montgomerie, oldest daughter of Hugh, third Earl of Eglinton, by whom he had five sons and a daughter:
1. Robert, second Earl of Winton.
2. George, third Earl of Winton.
3. Sir Alexander Seton of Foulstruther, Knight, who succeeded as sixth Earl of Eglinton, and in descent from whom is the present Earl of Eglinton and Winton, Lord Montgomerie, Baron Ardrossan, Baron Seton and Tranent, etc.
4. Sir Thomas Seton, Baronet of Olivestob.
5. Sir John Seton, Baronet of St. Germains.
6. Lady Isabel Seton.
The Earl of Winton died on the 22nd of March, 1603, and by his Latter Will, dated 28th February, 1603, he ordains “My body to be buried whole in most humble, quiet, modest, and Christian manner without all extraordinary pomp or unlawful ceremony, within my College Church of Seton among my progenitors of worthy memory.” By the words unlawful ceremony, the staunch old Catholic nobleman wished to say that he didn’t want any Protestant interference or Kirk rites about him after death, as he hadn’t brooked them in life. He was buried on Tuesday, April 5th, on the same day that King James the Sixth of Scotland set out from Edinburgh for London to become James First of England. And now a singular thing happened, the more so that the simple tastes of the late Earl and his adhorrence of display at his funeral were suddenly upset. Patrick Frazer Tytler thus moralizes on the inauspicious occurrence in concluding his History of Scotland:
“As the monarch passed the house of Seton, near Musselburgh, he was met by the funeral of Lord Seton, a nobleman of high rank; which, with its solemn movement and sable trappings, occupied the road, and contrasted strangely and gloomily with the brilliant pageantry of the royal cavalcade. The Seton’s were one of the oldest and proudest families of Scotland; and that lord, whose mortal remains now passed by, had been a faithful adherent of the kings mother: whose banner he had never deserted, and in whose cause he had suffered exile and proscription. The meeting was thought ominous by the people. It appeared, to their excited imaginations, as if the moment had arrived when the aristocracy of Scotland was about to merge in that of Great Britain; as if the Scottish nobles had finished their career of national glory, and this last representative of their race had been arrested on his road to the grave, to bid farewell to the last of Scotland’s kings. As the mourners moved slowly onward, the monarch himself, participating in these melancholy feelings, sat down by the way-side, on a stone still pointed out to the historical pilgrim; nor did he resume his progress till the gloomy procession had completely disappeared.”