Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seton, Alexander (1621?-1691)
SETON, ALEXANDER, Viscount Kingston (1621?–1691), born about 1621, was the third son of George, third earl of Winton [q. v.], by his first wife, Lady Anne Hay, eldest daughter of Francis, eighth earl of Errol. On the visit of Charles I to Seton Palace in 1633, Alexander Seton, a youth of twelve, welcomed the king in a formal Latin oration. In 1636 he went to study at La Flèche in France, and afterwards he made a tour through a great part of France, Italy, and Spain. He returned to Scotland in 1640, but, to avoid subscribing the covenant, went in 1643 to Holland. Venturing to return some time afterwards, and still declining to subscribe, he was excommunicated in Tranent church on 8 Oct. 1644. He then crossed over to France, where for some time he remained in attendance on the young Prince Charles. After the coronation of Charles II at Scone, he was created Viscount Kingston and Lord Craigiehall by patent dated at Perth Saturday, the 4th day of January 1651 (Balfour, Annals, iv. 251). He wrote a continuation of Sir Richard Maitland's ‘History of the House of Seton’ (Bannatyne Club). He died on 21 Oct. 1691. By his first wife, Jean, daughter of Sir George Fletcher, he had a daughter, Jean Seton, married to James, third lord Mordington. By his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Archibald Douglas of Whittinghame, he had three daughters and six sons. The sons were: Charles, master of Kingston; George; Alexander; Archibald, second viscount Kingston; John; and James, third and last viscount Kingston, who, for his share in the rebellion of 1715, was attainted by parliament. He was further married to Elizabeth Hamilton, third daughter of John, first lord Belhaven, and to Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Archibald, earl of Angus, but left no issue by either of these marriages.
[Balfour's Annals; extracts from the Family Bible in Dunse Castle, in Sir Richard Maitland's Genealogy of the House and Surname of Seton, 1830; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 39.]