John Seton, Lord Barns

While still a young man he went to Spain and the court of Philip II, by whom he was made Knight of the Military Order of Santiago and master of the household.

[5] According to David Hume of Godscroft, the king was ready to go riding when the courtiers were asked left him alone to speak to Arran in private.

Seton, as master of the horse stayed, which angered Arran, who made to throw his baton of office at him, and the royal guard hustled him downstairs.

In April 1584 the English ambassador heard various rumours of his return or demise, that he had arrived Dumbarton and was secretly in Edinburgh's Canongate and had met the king at Seton Palace, or that he had sea-sickness in the Irish sea, landed on the Isle of Man, and his ship had at Kirkcudbright by some accident without him, and he was dead.

[7] In a ciphered letter of April 1586 to Mary, Queen of Scots, Albert Fontenay mentioned John Seton, "le chevalier maistre d'hostel du roy", as one of her Catholic allies in Scotland.

The poet William Fowler, who was secretary to the queen Anne of Denmark wrote an epitaph for John Seton which was printed as a broadsheet.