Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seton, Charles
SETON, CHARLES, second Earl of Dunfermline (d. 1673), was the son of Alexander Seton, first earl of Dunfermline [q. v.], by his third wife, Margaret Hay, sister of John, first earl of Tweeddale, and succeeded his father on 16 June 1622. He was one of the leaders of the Scots covenanting army which in June 1639 took up a position on Dunse Law to bar the progress of Charles northwards, and on 6 June presented to the king in his camp a petition that he would appoint commissioners to treat in regard to the matter in dispute (Balfour, Annals, ii. 324); and he was one of those who signed the articles of pacification, as well as a paper of submission to the king (printed in Spalding's Memorialls, i. 216–217). In November he and John Campbell, first earl of Loudoun [q. v.], were sent to London to report to the king the proceedings of the assembly of the kirk and the parliament for ratification (Balfour, ii. 363; Spalding, i. 230; Guthrie, p. 69); but the king refused to receive them, and forbade them to approach within eight miles of the court (Spalding, i. 235). Dunfermline was also again sent to the king early in 1640, and, on account of the discovery of the letter of the Scots to the king of France, was, with the Earl of Loudoun and the other commissioners, detained for a time in custody. He was colonel in the Scots army which, under Lesley, crossed the Tweed in August. In the following October he was appointed one of the eight commissioners for the treaty of Ripon, and he was also one of the subcommittee appointed for the final conclusion of the treaty in London. While in London he received from the king a lease of the abbacy of Dunfermline for three times nineteen years. In September he was nominated a member of the privy council (Balfour, Annals, iii. 67), and the appointment was confirmed in November (ib. p. 149). In 1642 he was appointed the king's commissioner to the general assembly of the kirk of Scotland, which met at St. Andrews on 27 July (Spalding, Memorialls, ii. 172). In January 1646 he was chosen a member of the committee of estates, and, after the surrender of Charles to the Scots at Newcastle, was sent, along with Argyll and others, to treat with him, and accompanied Argyll to London to lay the king's case before the parliament. Having supported the ‘engagement’ for the attempted rescue of the king in 1648, he was debarred by the Act of Classes from holding any office of public trust. After the king's execution he went to the continent, and he took part in the negotiations at Breda in connection with the recall of Charles II, whom he accompanied to Scotland. In July 1650 he entertained Charles at Dunfermline (Balfour, Annals, iv. 84). When in October 1650 the king left Perth and joined the northern loyalists, Dunfermline was one of the commissioners sent to arrange matters with him (ib. p. 115). On 29 October he was on petition freed from the disabilities imposed on him by the Act of Classes, and permitted to take his seat in parliament (ib. p. 188). Shortly afterwards he was appointed one of the committee of estates for managing the affairs of the army, and he was in frequent attendance on the king during his stay in Scotland. In the army raised for the invasion of England his regiment formed part of the second brigade (ib. p. 300). At the Restoration he was sworn a privy councillor, and on 2 Nov. 1667 he was appointed an extraordinary lord of session, and the same year a lord of the articles. In 1671 he was appointed lord privy seal. He died in January 1673. By his wife, Lady Mary Douglas, third daughter of William, seventh earl of Morton, he had, with one daughter, three sons: Alexander, third earl of Dunfermline, who died soon after succeeding to the title; Charles Seton, killed in a sea-fight against the Dutch in 1672; and James, fourth and last earl, who in 1689 commanded a troop of horse under Dundee at Killiecrankie, and, being outlawed, went to France, where he died without issue in 1699.
[Balfour's Annals; Bishop Guthrie's Memoirs; Spalding's Memorialls of the Trubles, in the Spalding Club; Baillie's Letters and Journals, in the Bannatyne Club; Gardiner's Hist. of England; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 480–1.]