Below you will find historical information on David Seton, and how I twisted and warped it to suit my needs. This information is by no means complete, whether through my own laziness or an entire lack of information on the subject, and I advise you to do your own research if you want to find out more.
David Seton might not be real.
He probably is, though. He’s referenced throughout a lot of articles, but as I write this, I’m entirely unable to find so much as a wiki page focusing on him. Only references, so that’s what we’ll have to work with.
Every story needs a bad guy, and according to history, David Seton was born to play that role. But it’s never that easy, is it? Of course people are going to think you’re a bit of a twit if you spent a lot of time hunting witches, but he’s also had a port named after him, I think, and he’s got his own big ass pigeon coop, so there’s gotta be something working in his favor, right?
David Seton has a pigeon coop.
I might have mentioned that.
Somewhere in the north of Tranent is a building most people would pay good money for to live in these days. High ceilings, good floor space. But it was actually built to house 1122 pairs of pigeons. I don’t know why. Maybe it was handy to have a snack available? Look, I wish I had something better too, but so far all signs point to my version of David Seton being accurate. Maybe the next entry has something redeeming.
David Seton has a port.
Oh. He doesn’t.
The burgh of Cockenzie was created by King James, so there’s a link, but Port Seton within it was built by an entirely different Seton. Namely, George, and I can’t, nor care to, further investigate if they are related.
Swing and a miss, there, I guess.
David Seton was also there.
That’s pretty much the only fact I have for you at the moment.
He was a bailiff, which today means you hand papers to a judge, but back then it meant you were a bigshot. Other articles mention he was a magistrate, which definitely sounds better, but ultimately amounts to the same thing. He had a son, also named David, because names were expensive, I guess. The both of them bonded over hunting witches, it seemed. They both had enormous witch-boners, and it seems to me that’s not a thing you should be teaching your son.
“Look, lad, that’s a woman. If she stays quiet, she’s okay. If opinions start falling out of her mouth we get to set her on fire.”
David Seton had money issues.
Part of the reason Seton became so obsessed with witch hunting might have been because he had financial difficulties, which, according to him, were caused by others committing ungodly acts against him. Sure. That’s definitely what happened, if your wife asks.
Sounds an awful lot like a man who didn’t need much of an excuse to go ham on the local populace. I’m guessing that the money issues, and probably some rejections from women, by the time the witch panic reached Scotland.
David Seton had the king’s permission.
It would appear that David Seton had the king’s ear and his permission to deal with witches rapidly and autonomously. Bad decision, if you ask me, but who am I to argue with the king of Scotland.
But, you know, things like the North Berwick Witch Trials are bound to happen if you put a biased bigshot in charge of finding witches in his own district. Not that freelance witch hunters were any better, because if there’s money to be made in finding witches, they’re gonna find witches.
David Seton apologizes.
Or rather, I apologize for him. I’m sure that now he’s had some time to think about what he did, he’s very sorry. He’s also very sorry to you specifically for being such a hard person to learn about, and I’m sure he’s really sorry the only time his name comes up is when people are talking about the atrocity of the witch trials.