By Tim Porteus

GARY Donaldson lives in Port Seton. He is part of the band of enthusiasts who are bringing alive the history of salt-making at Cockenzie.

I met him last year at Cockenzie House, amidst a swirl of steam, where he was working a miniature salt pan erected to demonstrate the technique of traditional salt making, and which is now being used to teach those interested in the art.

Recently, while Gary was researching information on the Tranent-Cockenzie Waggonway, he came across another story about Port Seton. He contacted me and gave me a copy of an old article from 1924 entitled ‘A Port Seton Gold Maker’.

It was a poor-quality copy and difficult to read. But trying to decipher words just made it all the more exciting. Very quickly I realised that Gary had led me into a famous story that I had never heard of: Alexander Seton the Alchemist and his discovery of the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone.

The Philosopher’s Stone describes a substance which can turn lead or other base metals into gold. The whole process was associated with magic, philosophy and astrology. An alchemist was someone who possessed the skills and knowledge to transform substances in this way. And the tale tells us that Alexander Seton was successful in discovering the much-sought-after secret of making gold from base metal. His Philosopher’s Stone was in powder form.

He lived at Seton at the tail end of the 1500s and beginning of the 1600s. Who was he? Perhaps he was a member of the powerful and noble Seton family? History gives us no affirmative answer on that question. If he was he may have been an ‘illegitimate’ and unrecorded part of his kin. Maybe it wasn’t even his real name. We are told he lived close to the sea at Seton and had considerable wealth. Yet his identity remains as mysterious as the origin of his skills.

Some have suggested he was the recipient of knowledge handed down from the Knights Templar. Whatever the source, he practised his trade in secret, for he lived in dangerous times. Witch hunting was rife and alchemy could be associated with the ‘dark arts’.

It was a storm in 1601 which changed Alexander’s destiny. Or rather it was his bravery and hospitality. It was a ferocious storm with unforgiving waves destroying any vessel in their way. One victim of the sea’s wrath on this day was a Dutch boat, which was sunk within sight of Alexander’s home.

He rushed to the scene and personally helped save some of the crew, including the captain Jacques Haussen. He then looked after the Dutchmen in his house until they recovered from their ordeal and paid for their return to the Netherlands. This kind and generous behaviour was reciprocated the following year when he was invited to Enkhuizen by Jacques. It was during this visit that Alexander first revealed his powers of alchemy, at least the first time we know of.

Why after all this time of keeping it undercover did he now reveal his secret? Perhaps Alexander was just bursting to tell someone and trusted Jacques to keep the secret. Yet it seems Alexander wanted to travel and move onto Germany, and so maybe this was his way of announcing his arrival, his debut performance. Haussen couldn’t keep the secret and soon Alexander was on the road travelling through Europe performing his magic in front of distinguished and astonished audiences. His magical powder, used with a certain ritual, seemed to work every time.

He didn’t need money, he was already wealthy, so that wasn’t his motivation. He was like a scientist who wanted to prove that something was possible and he was the discoverer of it. But it was a very dangerous discovery. As Seton’s fame rapidly grew, he caught the attention of Europe’s rulers. They wanted him, or more accurately his secret.

Seton found himself having to move about carefully and use different names. He became known as the ‘Cosmopolite’, meaning a man of cosmopolitan character. He had brought with him a servant from Scotland called William Hamilton, whose appearance seemed that of a stereotypical Scot with red hair and beard. Their travels together were becoming increasingly like those of fugitives on the run.

Then while in Munich, Seton discovered another kind of magic chemistry: he fell totally in love with a young woman. Her father did not approve so he eloped with her and married her, and sent Hamilton in his place to successfully perform the secret for Christian II, the Elector of Saxony.

This was a huge mistake. The Elector was astounded by the creation of gold before his greedy eyes and wanted the secret for himself. Hamilton was able to escape his clutches and return to Scotland, but for whatever reason Alexander remained. He must have known how dangerous it was. Why didn’t he take his wife back to Seton? Maybe he had planned to do so, but suddenly it was too late.

He was taken prisoner by the Elector. Seton refused to reveal his secret and so he was horribly tortured. He was beaten and whipped but still he would not talk. Then his bones were dislodged while on the rack. He kept his secret. Molten lead was then dripped onto his body, burning into his flesh, yet even after this he would not, or could not, reveal the secret.

Now close to death, he was rescued by a man called Michael Sendivogius. The rescue is a story in itself, of how he got the guards drunk and carried the weak and dying Alexander from the prison and into a carriage where his loving wife was waiting.

Very likely Seton’s wife was the instigator of the rescue and she may have recruited Sendivogius for it. But compassion does not seem to have been the main motivation for this man’s actions. He was a Polish alchemist and he wanted Alexander’s secret. Yet his attempts to persuade the dying Seton to reveal the magic of his formula failed and Alexander died soon after his rescue, taking the secret of his Philosopher’s Stone to the grave.

Sendivogius married Seton’s widow in the hope she might know the secret from pillow talk with Alexander. But if she did she didn’t reveal it. And so Sendivogius had to make do with the powder that was left over and some academic manuscripts left by Seton.

It was in 1604 that Alexander Seton died, only two years after his arrival in Holland. His tour on continental Europe during that time, while short in time, is a major chapter in the long history of alchemy and of attempts to transform base substances to ones of great value. Alexander’s story is a tale full of both mystery and tragedy. No wonder the late Andrew Dallmeyer wrote a play based on it.

Gary and his fellow enthusiasts are alchemists in a different way; they are transforming seawater into pure salt. But they are happy to share their secrets and reveal the history behind their discoveries. In fact, this is a far more important and useful secret, and thankfully a less dangerous one for them.

Poor Alexander, perhaps in his last moments but too late, realised that the Philosopher’s Stone which really matters is the one that transforms the state of the heart.