, by
marrying the Lady Margaret Stuart, daughter of the Earl of Buchan, and
granddaughter of Robert the Second. In consequence of these several
intermarriages, it was proverbially said of the house of Seaton, "the
family is come of princes, and reciprocally princes are come of the
family." And these bonds of relationship were cemented by services
performed and honours conferred. The devotion of the Seatons to Mary,
Queen of Scots, has been immortalised by the pen of Sir Walter Scott.
George, the seventh Lord Seaton, attended on that unhappy Princess in
some of the most brilliant scenes of her eventful life, and clung to her
in every vicissitude of her fate. He, as Ambassador to France,
negotiated her marriage with the Dauphin, and was present at the
celebration of the nuptials. He afterwards aided his royal mistress to
escape from Lochleven Castle, in 1568, and conducted her to Niddry
Castle, his own seat. When, in gratitude for his fidelity, Mary would
have created him an Earl, Lord Seaton declined the honour, and
preferred his existing rank as Premier Baron of Scotland. Mary
celebrated his determination in a couplet, written both in French and in
Latin:

"Il y a des comtes, des rois, des ducs aussi,
Ce't assez pour moy d'estre Signeur de Seton."

The successor of Lord Seaton, Robert, judged differently from his
father, and accepted from James the Sixth the patent for the Earldom of
Wintoun; distinguishing the new honour by a courage which procured for
him the appellation of "Greysteel."[5]

George, the fifth Earl of Wintoun, and the unfortunate adherent to the
Jacobite cause, succeeded to the honours of his ancestors under
circumstances peculiarly embarrassing. His legitimacy was doubted: at
the time when his father died, this ill-fated young man was abroad, his
residence was obscure; and as he held no correspondence with any of his
relations, little was known with regard to his personal character. In
consequence partly of his absence from Scotland, partly, it is said, of
an actual hereditary tendency, a belief soon prevailed that he was
insane, or rather, as a contemporary expresses it, "mighty subject to a
particular kind of caprice natural to his family."[6]

The Viscount Kingston, next heir to the title of Wintoun, having
expressed his objections to Lord Wintoun's legitimacy, the young man, in
1710, took steps to establish himself as his father's heir. Two
witnesses were produced who were present at t