Old family; or, The Setons of Scotland and America

1 86 AN OLD FAMILY. [a.d. i^o?
sonallv interested. The royal advocates — Richard Lawson,
Justice Clerk, and his assistant, James Henryson (Henderson)
— emboldened by the king's presence, assumed an insolent tone
and laid down the law with unbearable presumption. Then
the Reverend Doctor stood up and said in a loud voice, play-
ing on his opponent's vulgar name: " Howbeit thev call you
Laws-son, vou are not Law-s-father, to make laws at your
pleasure." Then turning to the King, he said: " Sir, when
our ancestors got that land from your most noble predecessors
for their true service — sometimes giving the blood of their body
and sometimes their lives in defence of this realm; at that time
there was neither Lawson nor Henryson who would find ways
to disinherit the Barons of Scotland." The King's Grace
then answered Master David saving: " How now, you for-
get yourself; you remember not where you are; you are more
like a champion than an advocate; it looks as though you
would fight for the matter." Then up spoke Master David
and said: " Sir, and it might stand with your Grace's pleas-
ure, I pray God if it come to that, to see if both Lawson
and Henryson dare fight with me, in that quarrel, old as I
am " : (for he was then more than sixty). The King, who
was a humane prince, considering the man's age and his
great affection for his Chief, smiled and laughed a little and
said no more. With all his bluffhess, David was a whole-
souled priest, and made himself a general favorite, as we can
well imagine from what Sir Richard Maitland says of him :
" He was a singularly honest man, and married all his eldest
brother's daughters, after his decease, on landed men and paid
their doweries, and eot ladies of heritage for his brother's
sons." * Bless his memory.
IV. Sir Alexander Seton, Fourth Baron of Parbroath.
Sir Alexander succeeded his father. He was troubled during
several years — 1496 to 1503 — about a land dispute with
* Historic^ p. 25.