Old family; or, The Setons of Scotland and America

1493-' 5 I2 J A GREAT ALLIANCE. 187
Michael Balfour of Burleigh. Lord Glamys, Justiciar of
Scotland, chose him for one of his seven counsellors in the
controversy between the Abbey of Lindores and the Burgesses
of Newburgh, which was decided and recorded in a document
at Lindores, on January 15, 1493, °^ which David Seton,
Rector of Fettercairn, was one of the witnesses.
He married Helen, daughter of a great Highland chief —
Sir William Murray of Tullibardine — and had a son Alex-
ander, who died before his father, and other sons and daugh-
ters, whose names are not recorded, but who were all well
settled in life by their provident uncle, Master David Seton.
The Parbroaths must have been people of superior sub-
stance and consideration at this time, to have contracted so
great an alliance. Dame Helen's mother was Margaret,
daughter to Sir John Stewart, son of the Black Knight of
Lorn, who was created Earl of Athole in 1457. The Murrays
were a very ancient and very eminent family. Their founder
settled in Scotland in the reign of David I., and got extensive
possessions in Moray, from which he took the name De Mora-
via, Moray, Murray. Sir William de Moravia acquired the
lands of Tullibardine with his wife Adda, daughter to Malise,
Seneschal of Strathern, as appears by charters of a.d. 1282
and 1284. His descendant is the Duke of Athole, who has
more titles than any other nobleman in Great Britain, besides
inheriting half a dozen co-heirships to old English baronies.
His eldest son bears the courtesy title of Marquess of Tulli-
bardine.
Younger branches of the family received the peerages of
Dunmore, Mansfield, and Elibank, and the baronetcies of
Blackbarony, Clermont, and Ochtertyre.
V. Alexander Seton, Younger, of Parbroath. Not
much is known of him except that he was alive on the 10th
of March, 1512, but must have died soon after, and only a
little before his father. He also made a powerful alliance,