Captain Sir Henry Seton, 4th Baronet of Abercorn, Baron of Culbeg, Lineal Representative of Touch

Captain Sir Henry Seton, of Abercorn and Culberg - Sir Henry Seton, Fourth Baronet of Abercorn was a captain in the Seventeenth Regiment of Foot, and served in North America.  Sir Henry married Margaret Hay (1770), daughter to Alexander Hay of Drumelzier, by whom he had a son Alexander, who succeeded him on his death in 1788. 

The marriage to Margaret Hay brought the lineal bloodline of the Seton's, from Viscount Kingston's line, to that of the Abercorn's and for which they had been openly acknowledged, even as public as a letter published in the Chicago Tribune by the Marquis De Fontenoy in January 3rd, 1905.  In 1923 Sir Bruce Gordon Seton, 9th Baronet, petitioned the Crown for his right to the title of Lord Gordon. Although the Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords admitted that he was the heir male of the first Earl of Huntly they decided that he had not provided enough evidence of the creation and existence of the title of Lord Gordon.

Sir Henry Seton gazetted a captain in one of three Additional Companies of the 78th Fraser Highlanders on July 17, 1757 - bringing the total companies in the 78th's establishment up to thirteen. Ian McCulloch notes that Captain Seton's company went to Halifax, Nova Scotia but remained there in garrison on guard duty as they were considered not to be sufficiently trained for the Louisbourg expedition.  Seton's company rejoined the battalion on its way back to Boston and marched across Massachusetts to spend the winter in Schenectady in the Mohawk River Valley.  In the spring of 1759, Sir Henry transferred [22 April 1759] out of the 78th into the 17th Foot (Monckton's) which formed part of Amherst's successful expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point, while the 78th went via Halifax and Louisbourg to join Wolfe's expedition against Quebec. 

The following year, Sir Henry's new regiment went north to Montreal via Crown Point with de Havilland's expedition to take the French port city of Montreal.  In 1761 his company of the 17th was one of two assigned to Lt Col James Grant's 1761 expedition against the Cherokee which was successful.  Sir Henry then subsequently fought in the Caribbean at Havana, Cuba and left on half-pay in 1763 at the end of the war.   Golfers might like to know that Sir Henry was the Captain of the Royal Edinburgh Company of Golfers for 1756.

Among the Land Papers in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany, New York, is a certificate dated December 2, 1765, from General Gage, that Capt. Sir Henry Seton, Bart., served during the war (for the Reduction of Canada) as aide-de-camp to Honorable Major-General Monckton; also a Petition of Colonel Richard Maitland and Sir Henry Seton, dated December 13, 1766, for a grant of 8,000 acres to the rear of Coeyman’s confirmation; and a Return of Survey for Sir Henry Seton, Bart., Captain, of 3,000 acres on the west side of Hudson’s River, in the County of Albany (now Durham, Greene County); and a Map of the same.  Both Sir Henry and Colonel Maitland were particular friends of William Seton, of New York, Rep. of the Seton's of Parbroath.  Sir Henry died in June 1788, whereby he was succeeded by his son, Sir Alexander as 5th Baronet of Abercorn.