Old family; or, The Setons of Scotland and America

26 AN OLD FAMILY. [a.d.
this family by an heiress, Marjory, only child of Fergus.
After passing successively to several branches of the royal
Stewarts, and by heiresses into the families of Douglas and
Erskine, it is now held by the last — Earl of Buchan and Lord
Cardross — who carries in his shield the feudal arms of the
earldom ; but, as we shall see later on, when we come to
the Heraldry of the Setons, the same were used with far more
reason by the Earls of Winton, and are still borne as " arms
of pretence " by the Earls of Winton of the second creation,
who are also Earls of Eglinton. The only family in which
the name as well as the arms continue, is Gordon-Cumming
of Altyre, Bart. The present Lady Gordon-Cumming is an
American.
Bertrand received from his kinsman Patrick de Dunbar,
Earl of March, a grant of the lands of Ruchlaw, which was
confirmed by the king at Stirling on February 22, 1 172.
He died about 1230, leaving two sons: Adam, of whom
below, and Alexander, who witnessed the confirmation of a
charter to the burgh of Glasgow by King Alexander II.,
dated November 22, 1225. He is probably the same who,
as witness to another and later charter, is styled " Dominus
Alexander de Settone, Miles."
VII. Adam de Setoune. He succeeded his father Ber-
tram, 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 Ouincy, Earl of
Winchester, " Adamo de Seton," in 1246, anent the mar-
riage of the heiress of Alan de Fausyde — de maritagio haeredu
Alani de Faside — which is quoted by Sir Robert Sibbald in his