A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OK CELESTIAL FIGURES, fcr.
Great Steward of Scotland, and James Lord Douglas. But after the 2;:!i year
of that king's reign, when it is said those received the ancient Order of St Andrew
or the Thistle, and which is very probable, these great men are not then de-
signed militibus, a title common to ordinary knights, but are designed pntria- militibiu,
as extraordinary knights; and are witnesses in that charter of King Robe:
David I. to the church of Dur-
confirming the donations of Kiny Edgar and King
ham, of the date the 151)1 of November, the 2ist year of his reign, in Huddington's
Collections.
This Sir Alexander, upon account of his maternal descent, was the first of his
family that placed the double tressure round the crescents, Plate X. fig.
1 1. and got
from that king a coat of augmentation, vs Sir George Mackcn/.ie has also observed,
viz, gules, a sword supporting an imperial crown, to perpetuate to posterity the
memory of his own and progenitors' worthy actions for their king and country.
He was also Governor of Berwick upon Tweed, and had the town in feu-farm, a-,
is evident by the Burrow-Rolls of Exchequer in those times. In other charters he
is designed, Custos Villa: Bervica, super Tivgdam, as in a charter of Adam Hepburn,
in the year 1320, to John Renton, burgess of Berwick, of lands in the vilh
of Mordington. He married Isabel, sister to the Earl of Fife, in which country
he was when Edward Baliol, with the English and Scots rebels, made a descent
from England into Fife; against whom, Sir Alexander, with all the force he could
gather at the time, marched and gave them battle, but had the misfortune to be.
defeat and killed near Kinghorn, in the year 1330, as our historians and the English
Holinshed tell us.
Sir ALEXANDER SEATON succeeded his father in his estate and office, as governor
of Berwick, where he gave an evident testimony of his inherent loyalty, and
personal valour and resolution, in defending the town of Berwick against King
Edward III. on the head of a most potent army. How the said Alexander carried,
in all the dismal periods of that fatal siege, I recommend the reader to our own and
English historians, who magnify him as a great and worthy patriot. He had for
his wife Christian Cheyne, of the family of Straloch, and with her had issue, be-
sides William and Thomas Seatons, who were execute at Berwick, Alexander his
successor, and John, who married Elizabeth Ramsay heiress of Parbroth.
Which Sir Alexander succeeded his father, and married Margaret, sister to
William Murray, designed Captain of the Castle of Edinburgh, as by the history
of the family. Her arms, being three stars within a double tressure, impaled with
those of her husband, are cut on a stone, yet to be seen on the south side of the
Collegiate Church of Seaton.
Their son, Sir William Seaton, who is said, by the History of the Family, to
have been created Lord Seaton, married Katharine, daughter to Sinclair of Herdmanston,
whose arms on the genealogical tree, impaled with her husband's, are
argent, a cross ingrailed azure. Sir William's arms are also to be seen engraven
on a stone upon the south door of the church of Seaton, upon a shield cottcbe, three
crescents within a double tressure ; which shield is timbred with a side standing
helmet, wi'h volets ; and, in place of a wreath, a ducal crown ; and upon it, for
crest, a crescent, between two plumes of feathers, supported by two mertrixes, the
present supporters of the family. And near to this achievement there is a little
shield, charged with a cross ingrailed, for his lady, who bore to him two sons and
five daughters.
John, the heir and successor, and Alexander, who, by marriage with Elizabeth,
daughter and heir of Adam Gordon of Gordon, was not only the common ancestor
of the family of Gordon, but also of the Seatons of Touch and Meldrum, of whom
afterwards. Sir William's eldest daughter, Isabel Seaton, was married to Sir John
Stewart of Darnly, of whom came the Lords Darnly and Aubigny in France and
;
of them Henry Lord Darnly, Prince of Scotland, father of King James VI. The
second daughter, Margaret, was married to John Lord Kennedy, progenitor of the
Earls of Cassilis. The third, Marion, to Sir John Ogilvie, of whom the Earls of
Airly. The fourth, Jean, to John Lyle Lord Lyle. The fifth, Katharine, to Bernard
Haldane of Gleneagles.
Sir John Seaton succeeded his father Sir William, and, by all writers, is designed
Lord Seaton. He wasMasterof theHousehold to King James I. and attended Margaret
3 N