Adam de Seton

Adam succeeded his father Bertram, and is described by Maitland as "ane maister clerk"; i.e., a well-read man. In that age, when war and the chase occupied almost all the time of nobles, it was an exception, and reckoned a great accomplishment for one of them to be a scholar; and when this happened, the family chronicles always mention it as something to be proud of. We know that King Henry I of England was surnamed "Beauclerk" for this reason. A charter is extant of Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, "Adamo de Seton," in 1246, anent the marriage of the heiress of Alan de Fausyde--de maritagio baeredis Alani de Faside--which is quoted by Sir Robert Sibbald in his History of Fife. Adam de Setoune married Margaret Gifford, daughter of Hugh de Gifford, Lord Yester, a neighboring baron, sprung from an ancient and famous Anglo-Norman family whose title and estate now belong to the Marquess of Tweeddale, his descendant, through the marriage of Sir Thomas Hay of Locherwort with Johanna, eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Hugh Gifford of Yester.  They had five known children: 1st Barbara who married William de Keith, and who infused a new spirity into the family and who's son Edward became Marischal of Scotland;  2nd Christopher (or Chrystell) his heir; 3rd Alexander who was born circa 1235; 4th Philip who was a priest and rector of Biggar in Lanarkshire and ; 5th John who maintained the family estates of Seton in Yorkshire.  The Giffords owned the original "Goblin Hall," described in Marmion, is still a part of this old, ivy-cladcastle, now in ruins and but a few miles from Seton. Adam died in the reign of King Alexander III (1249-1292), but the date is unconfirmed. 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: R929.2S495

Sir Christopher, or Chrystell de Seton (1)

Sir Christopher, or Chrystell (1) succeeded his father Adam, and married Maud, daughter of Ingelram Percy, Lord Topcliff in Yorkshire. He was a very pious man, "more given to devotion than to worldliness," says Maitland; and another family chronicler tells us that he was a man who loved neither strife nor wrong, but rather to read and to pray. He was a considerable benefactor of the Church, particularly out of the estates in England, which he administered during his father's lifetime. His brother settled also in that part of England in which many Scoto-Normans (originally Anglo-Normans) were large landowners, and is described as "Sir John Seton of Seton, in Yorkshire." Dugdale mentions in those northeastern parts of England an Ivo de Seton and a "Capella de Seton," and the villa et territorium de Seton. Camden (Britannia) names Seton, in Northumberland, as part of the barony of De-la-Vall in the thirteenth century; and "Seton Delavell," as also "Monk-Seton," is plainly marked in the superb collection of maps in the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of William and John
Blaeu, published at Amsterdam in 1648. These names of places are now mostly written Seaton, but it was not so formerly; and the old feudal barons Delaval--"of the Vale"--were originally Setons-Delaval and an early offshoot of our ancient family. It was probably from one of Chrystell de Seton's donations that Pope Innocent IV. confirmed (as in Dugdale's Monasticon) at Lyons, in 1245, to the Prior of the Monastery of Saint James of Wartry Grangiam de Seton cum terris, pratis, pascuis, nemoribus, piscariis, et omnibus pertinentiis suis. He died in old age, before 1270:

"The knight's bones are dust,
And his good sword rust;
His soul is with the Saints, I trust."

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