Old family; or, The Setons of Scotland and America

1 302-13 1 8] VICTORY OF BANNOCKBURN. 3s
The large hereditary estates of the family in England were
now confiscated. The manor of Seton at Whitby Strand, in
Yorkshire, was conferred upon Edmund de Manley, a very
eminent person in the reigns of Edward I. and II., and dis-
tinguished in the Scottish wars. He subsequently fell at Ban-
nockburn. The more extensive domain in Northumberland
was granted to William, Lord Latimer. He also came to
grief, being made prisoner at Bannockburn.
XI. Sir Alexander Seton of Seton (2). He succeeded
his good father, and was knighted by King Robert Bruce.
He was employed both in civil and in military affairs, for in
January, 1302, he had a safe conduct into England, and three
years later the Scottish king applied for another one for him
to treat of a peace with the English. In 1306 there was a
mutual indenture made between Sir Gilbert Hay of Erroll,
Sir Niel Campbell of Lochaw, and Sir Alexander Seton of
Seton, knights, at the Abbey of Lindores, to defend King
Robert Bruce and his crown to the last of their blood and for-
tune. " Upon sealing the said indenture they solemnly took
the Sacrament at Saint Mary's altar in the said abbey church "
(Balfour, Annals). " Seton," says Alexander Laing (History
of Lindores Abbey, p. 93), " came of a race that fought bravely
and suffered much for the independence of Scotland."
On the 9th of September, 1308, he again bound himself in
the most public manner, in the same company, on the high
altar of the Abbey Church of Cambuskenneth, near Stirling,
" to defend till the last period of their lives the liberties of
their country and right of Robert Bruce, their king, against
all mortals, French, English, and Scots." * Sir Alexander
Seton shared in the glorious victory of Bannockburn, June 24,
1 3 14. Sir Thomas Grav, on the testimony of his father,
who was then a prisoner in the Scotch camp, tells us that Sir
Alexander Seton rode to Bruce' s tent in the wood the even-
*Collins's Peerage, VII., 419.