Barton was born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 5, 1795, the son of shipping merchant Seth Barton and Sarah Emerson (Maxwell) Barton.[1][2] He attended Washington and Lee University, where he studied law and attained admission to the bar.[3]
In 1821 he relocated to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he continued to practice law and became involved in the newspaper business.[4][5] He apparently served in the militia, in that he was often referred to in correspondence and press accounts as "Colonel", though the exact details of his military service are not currently known.[6][7]
Polk, as President, rewarded Barton with an appointment as Solicitor of the Treasury, where he served from 1845 to 1847.[15][16][17][18]
Barton served as U.S. Chargé d'affaires in Chile from 1847 to 1849.[19] While at this post he created controversy by marrying a local woman in a Protestant service. The leaders of Chile's Catholic Church were angered because as a Protestant and a man who had been divorced, they believed Barton to be violating church tenets by marrying Isabel Astaburruaga, who was Catholic.[20][21][22]
After leaving office, Barton resumed practicing law in New Orleans as the partner of Pierre Soulé.[23] He died of yellow fever in New Orleans on December 29, 1854.[24]
References
^The United States in Latin America: A Historical Dictionary, by David Shavit, 1992, page 18
^Callahan, James Morton (1945). "Matrimonial Problems of Seth Barton: An Ante-Bellum American 'Diplomat' in Chile". Arkansas Historical Quarterly. 4 (4): 285–306. doi:10.2307/40018363. JSTOR40018363.
^Memorial Record of Alabama, published by Brant & Fuller, Chicago, 1893, page 170
^Oeste, George Irvin (1966). John Randolph Clay: America's First Career Diplomat. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 278. Colonel Seth Barton, a personal friend of the President, was of a quarrelsome disposition and totally unfitted for a diplomatic post.
^Seth Barton entry, History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, by Thomas McAdory Owen and Marie Bankhead Owen, Volume 3, 1921, page 109
^Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor entry, History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, by Thomas McAdory Owen and Marie Bankhead Owen, Volume 3, 1921, page 117
^The Papers of Henry Clay, by Henry Clay, edited by James Franklin Hopkins and Robert Seager, 1973, page 672
^"Biography: Barton, Seth". Dictionary of Louisiana Biography. Louisiana Historical Association. Archived from the original on October 13, 2010. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
