Seton Palace was a favourite resort of Queen Mary. It was visited by her in her royal progresses on a great many occassions: it was the location of one of her first receptions to Scotland after her return from France following the death of her husband, the young King Francois II; it was also one of the private retreats where she was able to meet with Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and ultimately was the first vacation spot that the Royal couple visited at and were entertained after their marriage in 1565.  During the tumultous years during the marriage to Lord Darnley, Mary was often at Seton not only as a retreat, but held Court there constantly.  The devotion to Her Majesty and the hospitality displayed by George, 7th Lord Seton at the Palace is the subject of many legends. Despite as pleasureable resort, it was to Seton that Mary and Darnley fled for safety following the horrific murder of Rizzio, and of course was the private safe-haven and spiritual retreat following the death of Lord Darnley. 

Later still the Palace played host to Mary and James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell, (Mary's third and last husband) and was their favourite resort.  She was entertained there by Lord Seton in 1567, and on that occasion she and Bothwell won a match in shooting at the butts against Lords Seton and Huntly. The forfeit was a dinner, which the losers had to provide in an inn at Tranent.  It was to Seton that Queen Mary and Bothwell fled in the latter days of Mary's troubled reign, and though rescued by Lord Seton from the Douglas stronghold of Lochleven Castle and brought to his Castle of Niddry for safety where her forces were assembled preceeding the Battle of Langside, she was never to return to the Palace of Seton again. However, it was to Seton that the young King James VI, Mary's only son, was often brought during his upbringing, and even as a safe-haven during the troubled years of his youth where Robert, 8th Lord Seton (later 1st Earl of Winton) provided for his safety after his rescue from the Douglas captivity. 

During James' years as Ruler following the Regency, James continually held Court at Seton, and like his mother and grandfather, found the Palace a favourite private resort away from the rigors of the State-Courts.  When James VI revisited his native country in 1617, he spent his second night in Scotland at Seton. Charles I, who was raised by the Seton family when King James VI granted custody to Alexander Seton, Prior of Pluscarden and the fourth son of  George, 7th Lord Seton (later Lord Urquhart, Lord Fyvie and 1st Earl of Dunfermline), to be raised and educated at the nearby estates of Pinkie and Winton.  Charles gained experience in Statehood at the Palace, as well ecclesiastical direction. On his journey from London to Edinburgh, in 1633, in order to be crowned there as well as in England, halted a night at Seton, and was magnificently entertained by George, third Earl of Wintoun.

The Palace of Seton, in it’s final phase, was similar in style to the family’s later house at Winton, showing the influence of Elizabethan architecture in the earlier French inspired Scottish Baronial style.  It was indeed an imposing building, at least seven stories tall, set around a large triangular/quadrangular court stood three large fronts of freestone. The front to the south-east which appears to have been built early in the reign of Queen Mary (indicated by the ceiling which featured the Coats-of-Arms of Scotland, France, Queen Mary, the Dauphin and Hamilton etc., all of which were surrounded by the French Order of St. Michael), contained, beside other apartments, a long hallway, a noble hall and drawing-room, a parlour, a great bedchamber, dressing-room and closet.  The earlier front to the north housed the apartments of State, necessary because Seton Palace was frequently visited by Royalty which included James V and Mary of Guise, Mary Queen of Scots, James VI, Charles I and Charles II, and housed three great rooms with 40 foot high ceilings.

The rooms were finely furnished after Mary Queen of Scots kept Court there on her return from France, and to accommodate the many staff, the third front was full of good lodging rooms and the outer Courts included numerous offices and a Church or Chapel. To defend this impressive building, towers stood at every angle and on each side of the gate.  According to tradition, it was customary for the Earls of Wintoun once a year to ‘ride the marches’ of their estates, which were so extensive that a whole day, from sunrise to sunset, was required to ride in state round the boundaries of their lands. On these occasions the head of the house was always accompanied by a large retinue of friends and retainers, mounted on gaily caparisoned horses, the charger of the chief being arrayed in cloth of silk adorned with gold tassels. The festivities which followed this ceremonial lasted several days.

One of the most atrocious events in Scottish societal history was in fact the plunder of the Seton Palace.  Never before 1714-15 was any house plundered to such an extent, nor any house of such magnificence ever plundered, like that of the Seton's following the raids that were begun by the Lothian Militia in 1715.  Not only was the interior of the Seton Church highly defaced and the tombs destroyed and pillaged, but the entrance wing itself was entirely demolished as well.  While much the wealth of the Palace was looted in the presence of the 5th Earl of Winton and the house with it's magnificent painted, plastered and gilded walls and ceilings burned, but it was further pillaged following the imprisonment of the 5th Earl and a great many paintings and artifacts were lost as a result.

It was of such a societal abhorrence that it became a motivation to encourage the settling of the America's, with it's undiscovered potential wealth as lucrative incentive, so that homeland estates would never be subject to a plundering such that which was inflicted upon the Seton's.  It might well be that it was this singular example that forced the Scottish nobility to sponsor the North American campaigns after the tragic losses of the Darien Expedition, which until the Seton plundering the ill-fated Expedition stood as a barrier to any such future financing of explorations of the continent.

The estates of the last Earl of Wintoun were forfeited to the Crown on his attainder, for the part which he took in the Jacobite rising of 1715.  The castle was held for a short time in 1715 by Brigadier Macintosh and a detachment of Highlanders before their march to the Borders to join the Northumbrian insurgents under Mr. Forster and Lord Derwentwater.  They were vested by Act of Parliament in the King for the public interest, and Commissioners were appointed for inquiring into their condition. Owing to the numerous obstacles thrown in their way, it was not until the autumn of 1719 that the Commissioners were ready to dispose of the forfeited lands.

In a number of instances the forfeited estates were bought back for the family of their former proprietors, but none of the Setons appear to have been able to purchase the Wintoun property, as the main line was extinct. On the 6th of October the Wintoun estate was put up for sale by auction, and, with a trifling exception, was purchased by the agent of the York Buildings Company for the sum of £50,300. It appears, from an official survey taken in the years 1716 and 1717, that the rental of the estate amounted at that time to £3,393. Of that sum only £266 7s. 9d. was payable in money; £876 18s. 4d. was payable in wheat valued at 10s. 5d. per boll, £1,019 12s. 2d. in barley, and £166 2s. 6d. in oats, both valued at the same price as the wheat.

The salt-pans and coal-pits were reckoned at about £1,000; [The company attempted to work the coal-mines and salt-pans at Tranent. They fitted up one of the new fire engines, the first of the kind in Scotland, and made a wooden railway between one and two miles long, connecting the pits with the salt-works at Preston and the harbour at Port Seton. After an expenditure of £3,500 they could not clear £500 a year from the coal-pits and salt-pans combined. They let them for £1000 a-year to a ‘competent person,’ but in no long time he gave up the lease, because he could not make sufficient to pay the rent. The company also tried glass-making, and set up a manufactory for that article at Port Seton; but, on balancing their accounts at Christmas, 1732, they found that they had lost £4,088 17s. 5d. by the experiment.] 749 capons at 16d. each, and 802 hens at 6 2/3d. each, amounted to £53 10s., and 504 thraves of straw, at 5d. per thrave, to £10 10s.

The York Buildings Company ultimately became bankrupt, and in 1779 the Wintoun estate was again exposed for sale. As the property was of great extent, it was thought that it would be difficult to find a person able to purchase the whole, and it was therefore, by authority of the Court of Session, put up in lots. The first two of these, including the famous old Seton House, the chief residence of the family, were purchased by Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, W.S., who was common agent for the creditors of the company. [Mr. Mackenzie was succeeded as a common agent in 1789, on the nomination of the company, by Mr. Walter Scott, W.S., who at that time had as his apprentice his son, the great novelist and poet.] No objection was made at the time to the legality of this purchase on the part either of the Court or of the creditors; but thirteen years afterwards an action of reduction was brought at the instance of the company.

The Court of Session gave judgment in Mr. Mackenzie’s favour, but their decision was reversed on appeal to the House of Lords. The Company not only raised the general question that the purchase was a breach of trust on the part of the common agent, but they brought special and strong charges against Mr. Mackenzie’s conduct in the transaction.  They alleged that the manner in which the previous rental was made up was not satisfactory, and that the knowledge which Mr. Mackenzie had obtained in his official capacity of the condition and details of the property had been of material advantage to him. They further averred that the sale had been hurried through in an irregular and improper manner. According to the custom of that time the sale was advertised to take place ‘between the hours of four and six afternoon,’ a latitude allowed for the ‘want of punctuality in the judge, the clerks, and the other persons immediately concerned,’ so that five o’clock came to be considered the proper and real hour.

On this occasion, however, Lord Monboddo, the Ordinary, before whom the judicial sale was to take place, having received a hint to be punctual, arrived at the Parliament House and took his seat upon the bench exactly as the clock struck four. Proceedings commenced immediately, and the first and second lots, having been put up successively, were knocked down to Mr. Mackenzie without waiting the outrunning of the half-hour sand-glass, as required by the Articles of sale. Several persons who had intended to offer for these lots found, to their great disappointment and chagrin, on their arrival at the Court that the sale was over. These allegations do not appear to have been taken into consideration by the House of Lords, since the illegality of the conduct of the agent was regarded as sufficient to vitiate the transaction.

The lands in question were again exposed for sale, and were purchased by the Earl of Wemyss in 1798, at three times the price that had been paid by Mr. Mackenzie. The decision of the House of Lords unfortunately came too late to save from destruction the fine old castle or Palace of Seton. The destruction of the famous old castle of Seton was not the only act of Vandalism of which Mackenzie was guilty during the short time he possessed the property. A few hundred yards to the west of the castle stood the ancient village of Seton, which in 1791 was inhabited by eighty-six persons, mostly weavers, tailors, and shoemakers, each family possessing a house and a small piece of ground.

This industrious little community, which for centuries had thriven under the fostering care of the Seton family, was entirely broken up and dispersed by the unscrupulous lawyer who had illegally, if not fraudulently, obtained temporary possession of the estate. When called upon by him to produce the title-deeds of their little properties, it was found that most of them had no titles to show, their houses and lands having been handed down from father to son through many generations. Those who were unable to produce their titles were at once turned out of their houses, while it is alleged that the few who possessed the requisite documents, and sent them to Mackenzie’s office in Edinburgh, never saw them again, and were, like the others, shortly after compelled to remove from their ancient heritages without receiving any compensation. Only one of the villagers escaped eviction. He somehow learned that his property had been registered when it was purchased, and he was consequently enabled to set at defiance the attempts of the usurper to rob him of his patrimony.

Seton Castle

This is one of the most striking of Robert Adam's late houses in the castle style. Seton Castle is made up of various shaped towers around a curved wall enclosing the courtyard which is entered by a central archway. Situated to the east of Longniddry, Seton Castle is built on the site of Seton Palace which formerly belonged to the Earls of Winton.  The estate of Winton included the barony and burgh of Tranent until the last earl, George, fifth Earl of Winton lost his titles and estates for participating in the 1715 Jacobite rebellion. Winton was condemned to death but managed to escape the Tower of London, living the rest of his life in Rome where he died in 1749 as a member of Chevaliers’ Cabinet and a noted Templar.

The Seton estate was then purchased from the British Government by the York Buildings Company who put it up for public sale. In 1790 the new owner, Alexander Mackenzie, an Edinburgh Writer to the Signet demolished the old Palace of Seton and built the more modern mansion. With an unpardonable want of taste and respect for historical associations, Mr. Mackenzie pulled down this splendid structure and erected in its place an incongruous tasteless building, which has frequently been used as a boarding-school, and is fit for nothing better. It is surrounded, however, by some fine old stately trees, and the gardens are still celebrated for the finest and earliest fruits of the season, though in recent years, the magnificent garden and orchard of the Palace has been bought by a private family and converted into an automotive garage, destroying what should have been preserved as a National treasure.

Round Tower in Seton Palace Wall

After being allowed to decay for 75 years Seton Palace was eventually demolished in 1790 to make way for the more modern Seton Castle. There is little evidence of the old Palace except for remnants of the Mill, the Church and the original garden walls. The South-Western Turret still stands as a reminder of the previous occupants of Seton Palace, the Earls of Winton. From the early twelveth century until 1715 the Seton family owned the estate. After 1600, the Setons became the Earls of Winton and the parish of Seton was annexed to the parish of Tranent.

The Turret stands as a reminder of one of the Palace's most famous visitors. On the 4th of April 1603, King James VI of Scotland was on his way south to take the throne as King James VI of Scotland & I of England. As his entourage approached Seton Palace it met with the funeral procession of the Earl of Winton. Winton’s father was one of the most faithful adherents to James' mother Mary Queen of Scots, and of King James VI, and Winton himself had been highly active in maintaining His Royal Highness’ throne as well.  In acknowledgement of this the King halted his retinue to sit down on the South-Western Turret until the funeral of his old supporter moved past.

Mill near Seton Castle

In 1854 water power was used to drive 34 corn and meal mills in East Lothian. Practically every landowner had a mill and land was thirled; which meant it was let on the condition that grain grown on the land was taken to the mill for grinding. Thirling generated income for the landowner as well as the miller who took a share of profits. Situated at the extreme north of the Seton Castle estate the flourmill was driven by a warm stream which allowed the mill to function continuously despite extremely frosty conditions. Seton Mill was a single storey building. The lower floor would house the gearing with a platform for milling and a separate circular drying kiln. Operations were abandoned in 1715 when the estate was acquired by the British Government and subsequent private owners until the derelict mill was taken over by National Trust for Scotland. In 1982, the mill was offered for sale on the condition that the mill, cottage and derelict house be developed within two years.

http://www.elothian-museums.demon.co.uk/tranent/big/Ai2936.htm