Old family; or, The Setons of Scotland and America

184 AN OLD FAMILY. [a.D.
family the hero of one of his matchless tales, and James
Grant has made Roland Vipont the last of his noble race in
the story of Jane Seton.
III. Sir Gilbert Seton, Third Baron of Parbroath. He
succeeded to Sir Alexander, his father. Married Marion,
daughter of Pitcairn of that Ilk.
Pitcairn is an old Fifeshire family ; but it never rose to ter-
ritorial importance. A 'Johannes de Pitcairn figures as early
as 1250. The name is derived, perhaps, from those singu-
lar Druidical stones which are often the companions of the
chambered Cairns, and of the underground edifices called Picts'
Houses, for which, see Burton, History of Scotland, I., pp. 99
and 137. The old form of Pit, or Pitten, means a portion of
land or a small holding, and is sometimes connected with
Gaelic specific terms, so that Pitcairn might signify rather the
Land of the Cairn than the Picts' Cairn.* There have been
men of this name in science, literature, and civil employ-
ment. The "great man" of the family is Robert Pitcairn,
Commendator of Dunfermline, son of David Pitcairn of that
Ilk. He was born about 1530, bred to the Church, and pre-
ferred to the rich commendam of Dunfermline; but he remained
a layman, and married. Appointed an ordinary Lord of
Sessions on June 23, 1568, he frequently visited England on
the affairs of his partv. Died on October 18, 1584, and was
buried at Dunfermline, where a monument bearing a Latin
inscription was erected to his memorv.
Others of the family were authors of works esteemed in
their day, and Dr. Archibald Pitcairn, in 1700, was " one of
the most conspicuous persons of his time in Scotland — one of
the few, moreover, known out of his own country, or destined
to be remembered in a future age." f Major (John) Pitcairn
was the only British officer always accounted fair in his deal-
* Skene : Four Ancient Books of Wales, I., 157.
f Chambers : Domestic Annals, III., 223.