George Seton

George Seton of Careston FRSE FSA (25 June 1822 – 14 November 1908) was a Scottish philanthropist and genealogist.

Seton was born in Perth, Scotland the son of George Seton, a merchant in the East India Company, and his wife, Margaret Hunter. Seton was educated at Edinburgh High School, then studied Law at University of Edinburgh, and Exeter College, and finally Oxford, from which he graduated in 1845.

Although called to the Scottish bar in 1846, Seton never practiced as a lawyer. Instead, he filled various public offices, as secretary to the Registrar-general for Scotland (from 1854) and Superintendent of the civil service examinations in Scotland (from 1862).

Seton was one of the founders of the St Andrews Boat Club, the first vice-chairman of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor, a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. However, his real love was genealogy, and in 1863 he published The Law and Practice of Heraldry in Scotland.

In later life he lived at "St Benets", 42 Greenhill Gardens in south-west Edinburgh. The house was designed by John Henderson in 1860. The house was later acquired by the Roman Catholic Church and serves as the home for the Cardinal.

George Seton died in Edinburgh, aged 86.

In 1849 he married Sarah Elizabeth Hunter (d.1883), second daughter of James William Hunter FRSE.

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