Sir John married the heiress Elizabeth Ramsay sometime after 1333, who was given by King David II to his father to bestow on his son, and became the 1st Baron of Parbroath.  Of the ancient castle of Parbroath which belonged to the oldest branch of the family of Seton, which branch were senior's in the cadets at the time of the Seton's of Winton accession to the chiefship, nothing now remains to mark the site save part of an arch from one of the barrel vaulted ground floors, surrounded by a few old trees, carefully preserved by desire of the late Earl of Hopetoun.

The old triangular-shaped castle had formerly been surrounded by a moat, over which there was a draw-bridge, and the park in which they were situated is still called the Castlefield. One of the late farm-buildings at Parbroath, which was long used as a barn, had at one time been the estate chapel, and that at it and at the church of Creich, divine service was performed on alternate Sabbaths.