Margaret Seton
Margaret Seton, Lady Paisley (died 1616) was a Scottish aristocrat, courtier and a favourite of Anne of Denmark.
Family background
She was a daughter of George Seton, 7th Lord Seton and Isobel Hamilton, a daughter of Sir William Hamilton of Sanquhar. A family group portrait by Frans Pourbus the Elder painted in 1572 has a French inscription, her father's advice to her, "My daughter, fear God and for your honour, since the honour of ladies is tender and delicate". She wears two bands of jewels and pearls in her auburn hair with a ruby and a sapphire as their centrepieces. Her necklace or carcanet has precious stones set in gold alternating with diamonds. The artist may have depicted actual family jewels.[1]
In July 1568
Marriage
After she married Claud Hamilton in 1574 she was known as "Lady Paisley". Married women in early modern Scotland did not change their surnames when they married.[3][4] She continued to sign her letters, "Margaret Setoun".[5]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Stirling_Castle_%286017718172%29.jpg/220px-Stirling_Castle_%286017718172%29.jpg)
Her brother, Alexander Seton, asked for leave from his duties in Edinburgh to visit her at Paisley in December 1591 because she was ill.[6]
She and her mother Isobel Hamilton, Lady Seton, became favourites of Anne of Denmark, the wife of
On 25 December 1602
The incident at Stirling Castle
On 7/17 May 1603, Anne of Denmark came to Stirling Castle accompanied by the Earl of Orkney, Lady Paisley and others, hoping to collect her son Prince Henry.[10] At Stirling, Marie Stewart, Countess of Mar and her step-son the Master of Mar prevented this. Anne of Denmark made clear her intention to take her son away on the morning of Monday 9/19 May. After some discussions, they sat down to dinner and the queen became unwell. Jean Drummond and Lady Paisley's daughter-in-law Marion Boyd, Mistress of Paisley, helped carry the queen to bed where she had a miscarriage.[11] The 17th-century historian John Spottiswoode, who attended the queen at this time as her almoner or "elemosynar", wrote, "her Majesty went to Striveling, of mind to bring away the prince her son, and carry him along with herself to England; but being denied by the friends of the House of Marre, she became so much incensed, as falling into a fever, she made a pitiful abortion".[12]
Members of the Privy Council of Scotland travelled "in haste" to Stirling, including Alexander Seton, Lord Fyvie, the Earl of Montrose, William Stewart of Traquair, and the lawyers John Skene, John Preston of Fenton Barns, John Cockburn, and Thomas Hamilton. They spoke with the Earl of Mar, who had returned to the castle. Mar said that he had heard of plot to take Prince Henry from Stirling while he was away.[13] Alexander Seton, Margaret's younger brother, wrote to King James advising him to treat the queen with care, writing, "physic and medicine requireth a greater place with Her Majesty at present than lectures on economics and politics."[14] Seton mentioned her "extremity of sickness and disease" at his coming to Stirling.[15] A letter from King James to Anne of Denmark at this time dismisses the Earl of Mar's suggestion of a plot, and asks her to put aside her grief or "dule", and "womanly apprehensions".[16]
Anne of Denmark, according to Thomas Hamilton, told Lady Paisley and her physician
Later life
Lady Paisley wrote from Monkton to Anne of Denmark on 1 September 1610. She was hoping that the queen could help her avoid censure by the Presbytery of Ayr. She wrote that she had suffered from debilitating headaches and toothache for the last four years.[22]
She died in February 1616.[23]
Marriage and children
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Niddry_Castle.jpg/220px-Niddry_Castle.jpg)
She married Claud Hamilton, 1st Lord Paisley in August 1574 at Niddry Castle. The wedding was celebrated with "great triumphs".[24] Their children included:
- James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn (1575–1618)
- John Hamilton
- Claud Hamilton of Shawfield (died 1614)
- George Hamilton
- Frederick Hamilton (1590–1647)
- Margaret Hamilton (died 1623), who married William Douglas, 1st Marquess of Douglas
Three children who died as infants, Margaret (1577), Henry (1585), and Alexander (1587), are commemorated by an inscription at Paisley Abbey.[25]
References
- ^ Kate Anderson, 'Jewels in Sixteenth-Century Scottish Portraits', Anna Groundwater, Decoding the Jewels (Sidestone, 2024), p. 134: Rosalind Marshall & George Dalgleish, The Art of Jewellery in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1991), p. 14.
- ^ Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1963), p. 73 no. 340.
- ^ Jenny Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community (London, 1981), p. 30.
- ^ History Workshop, What's in a Surname? Rebecca Mason
- ^ Original Letters Relating to the Ecclesiastical Affairs of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1851), p. 257.
- ^ George Seton, Memoir of Alexander Seton (Edinburgh, 1882), p. 24-5.
- ^ HMC Calendar of the papers of the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield, vol. 6 (London, 1895), p. 540.
- ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:2 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 1095 no. 891: Leeds Barroll, Anna of Denmark (Philadelphia, 2001), p. 27.
- ^ Maureen Meikle, 'A meddlesome princess: Anna of Denmark and Scottish court politics, 1589-1603', Julian Goodare & Michael Lynch, The Reign of James VI (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2000), p. 136: Eva Griffith, A Jacobean Company and its Playhouse: The Queen's Servants at the Red Bull Theatre (Cambridge, 2013), p. 117.
- ^ Nadine Akkerman, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (Oxford, 2021), p. 26.
- ^ John Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland (London, 1668), p. 477.
- ^ Melros Papers (Edinburgh, 1837), pp. 3-4.
- ^ Rosalind K. Marshall, Scottish Queens: 1034-1714 (John Donald: Edinburgh, 2007), p. 149.
- ^ James Maidment, Letters and State Papers During the Reign of King James the Sixth (Edinburgh, 1836), p. 54.
- ^ James Orchard Halliwell, Letters of the Kings of England, vol. 2 (London, 1846), pp. 106-8.
- ^ William Fraser, Memorials of the Earls of Haddington, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1889), p. 211
- ^ Nadine Akkerman, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (Oxford, 2021), pp. 26-7, 417 fn.54.
- ^ Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603–1607, vol. 10 (London, 1900), pp. 40, no. 66, 43 no. 69, 48 no. 73.
- ^ Anne Emily Garnier Newdegate, Gossip from a Muniment Room: being passages in the Lives of Anne and Mary Fytton, 1574–1618 (London: David Nutt, 1897), pp. 56-7.
- ^ Nadine Akkerman, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (Oxford, 2021), pp. 29-30: Mémoires de Sully, vol. 3 (Paris, 1822), p. 332: Charlotte Lennox, Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, vol. 3 (London, 1763), p. 236: Memoirs Of The Duke Of Sully (London: Bohn, 1857), p. 357
- ^ Original Letters Relating to the Ecclesiastical Affairs of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1851), p. 257: James Paterson,. History of Ayr, vol. 1 (Ayr, 1847), p. 457.
- ^ William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 129.
- ^ Thomas Thomson, A diurnal of remarkable occurrents that have passed within Scotland (Edinburgh, 1833), p. 341
- ^ Charles Rogers, Monuments and monumental inscriptions in Scotland, vol. 1 (London, 1871), p. 423