I READ with interest your article on Barracks House in Port Seton (“House tells story of battles, business and the day circus came to town”, The Herald, April 19). However, I'm rather puzzled by your statement that it once housed "the militia of the Earl of Swinton". Could you by any chance mean the Earl of Wintoun, who was the local landowner before he forfeited his estates for his part in the 1715 Rebellion?
I spent several years researching the Earl and found no evidence that he ever had such a thing as a militia. McNeill, the historian of "Tranent and its surroundings" states that Port Seton barracks "was occupied by several troops of yoemanry" in 1797 at the time of the Tranent Militia Riot, and "during the Peninsular War by both regular troops and militiamen". The building's use as a barracks is perhaps more likely to date from that time.
DM Robertson,
47 Forthview Road, Longniddry, East Lothian.
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