Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...

13. Hugh Seton of Touch 1748-49 [nee Hugh Smith] b. ca 1720; d. aft 1776
http://www2.thesetonfamily.com:8080/directory/Seton/Hugh_Seton.htm
< Hugh Seton of Touch
James Seton, last of Touch (d. 1742) died unmarried and his only sibling, Elizabeth Seton inherited
the estate. She married Hugh Smith and he assumed his wife's surname of Seton.
Hugh kept to the Touch family's Jacobite traditions and in 1745 Prince Charles Edward, on his way
to the Battle of Prestonpans stayed at Touch on the night of September 13th 1745. He gave to his
host Hugh Seton a quaich, a ring and a miniature and General Murray left behind his dispatch book.
These were much treasured by the Setons, and are now held in the safekeeping of an Edinburgh
Museum. Hugh Seton of Touch was Master of the Lodge of Boulogne 1747-48 and the 13th Grand
Master Mason of the Grand Lodge of Scotland between 1748-49. He maintained correspondence
with the exiled Royal House of Stuart throughout the 18th century, and his letters in 1775 and 1776
to Louise, Princess of Stolberg, concerning the claim of a young Lady (later legitimated the Duchess
of Albany) to be recognized as the daughter of the Young Pretender, have been preserved.
Hugh Seton, together with local lairds, brought families down from the highlands to start the
mammoth task of draining the Carse of Stirling. Ditches were dug to float the peat which covered this
bogland down to the River Forth, and eventually out to sea. In all an area some 60 square miles was reclaimed, and the rich clay
soil which was exposed beneath is now renowned for the production of Timothy hay. This was only the start of Hugh Seton’s
improvements to Touch. It is to him that we owe the magnificent south front which was commenced in 1757 and continued till 1770
when the Drawing Room ceiling was completed. As a result of his expenditure Hugh Seton found himself in considerable debt and
left to travel abroad. His son, Archibald, determined to clear the estate of debt, joined the East India Company and sailed to India in
1779. He rose to high office, accumulated a considerable sum of money but sadly died on his way home before reaching Touch on
whose behalf he has worked all his life. Archibald's sister, Barbara, married Sir Henry Stuart of Allanton, and inherited Touch. Sir
Henry took the name of Seton-Steuart and their family remained the lairds of Touch.
Touch House
http://www.pgls.co.uk/history/the%20formation%20of%20pgl.htm
Brother John Callander was matriculated to Lodge Ancient Stirling on 27th December, 1744, and elected Right Worshipful Master
on the same date. Shortly after Brother John Callander was admitted to Lodge Ancient Stirling, Hugh Smith, a Brother of the Lodge
of Bolougne, was matriculated to the Lodge. On marriage, Brother Hugh Smith assumed his wife’s surname of Seton. He was
elected Master of the Lodge for 1746-1747 and 1748 and as Hugh Seton of Touch was Grand Master Mason of Scotland in
1748-1749.
Brother Hugh Seton of Touch was not, however, the first member of a Stirlingshire Lodge to be elected Grand Master Mason. On
29th January, 1740, a petition was presented by Brother William, 4th and last Earl of Kilmarnock, then Master of the Kilmarnock
Lodge, craving to be admitted a member of the Lodge of Falkirk and the petition was unanimously agreed.
In the absence of the Master, the Earl presided over a meeting of the Lodge on 5th March, 1740, and was chosen as Master on the
27th December of that year. He was elected Grand Master Mason for 1742-1743 and presided over his last meeting in the Falkirk
Lodge on 27th December, 1744.
14. Thomas, Lord Erskine (Jacobite Earl of Mar) 1749-50
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Erskine%2C_Lord_Erskine
Thomas Erskine, Lord Erskine (1705–16 March 1766) was the son of John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar.
On 1 October 1741, he married Charlotte Hope, daughter of the 1st Earl of Hopetoun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Erskine%2C_6th_Earl_of_Mar
John Erskine, 22nd (or 6th) Earl of Mar (1675 - May, 1732), Scottish Jacobite, was the eldest son of Charles, the 5th earl (1650-
1689), from whom he inherited estates that were heavily loaded with debt. Owing to the complex history of the earldom, Erskine
may be reckoned 22nd or 6th in the line.
He was associated with a party favourable to the government, was one of the commissioners for the Union, and was made a
Scottish secretary of state; becoming, after the Union of 1707, a representative peer for Scotland, keeper of the signet and a privy
councillor. In 1713 Mar was made an English Secretary of State by the Tories, but he seems to have been equally ready to side with
the Whigs and, in 1714, he assured the new king, George I, of his loyalty. However, like the other Tories, he was deprived of his
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