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Lot 379
Seton or Setoun (Robert, second Earl of Winton, son of Robert Seton, first Earl of Winton, Scottish peer, ambassador, supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots and James VI, 1553-1603, fl. 1583 - after 1636) [Notebook on metallurgy and mining], ?autograph manuscript, in Latin and English, 83pp. excluding blanks, a few pp. in other hands, some blank ff. double-paged, slightly browned, original vellum, stamped "RS" on both covers, slightly yellowed and soiled, covers splayed, holes for ties, 127 x 153mm., Pot watermark, variously dated 1618-35.⁂ Mining. "With the same Mines and among the veins siluer, there is found a minerall, which to speik properly, is a stone concreat of a certaine scum or foame, white and shining houbeit not transparet, which is called by sume stimi, by others Stibium, Alabastrum, or Larbason. And here of there be two kinds, the male and the female. Bot the female Antimonie or Stibium is the better esteemed: for the male is more rude, rough and rugged; And yet for all that, not so weiotie, bright and radiant... ." - Seton.Robert Seton became second Earl of Winton on his father's death in 1603 and in the same year married Anne Maitland, daughter of the late John, Lord Thirlestane, Chancellor of Scotland, who was fourteen at the time. Seton violently attacked his wife on the night of the marriage and after this incident Scotstarvet, who described the event, recorded that he "lay in fetters till he died". On 26th June 1606, Seton resigned his titles and estates in favour of his brother George who became third Earl of Winton.
