Clan Sinclair

History

Sinclair is a Norman name, from Saint-Clair in France; one clan account points to Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. Tradition says that a William de Saint-Clair came to Scotland in the train of Margaret, the English princess who married Malcolm III around 1070, and that he was given Roslin, south of Edinburgh. The documents begin later. A Henry de Saint-Clair had a charter of Herdmanston in Haddingtonshire in the early 1160s, and in 1280 Sir William Sinclair, sheriff of Edinburgh, received the barony of Roslin from Alexander III.

The Roslin family stood with Bruce in the Wars of Independence. Sir Henry Sinclair is said to have fought at the battle of Roslin in 1303, and the family was at Bannockburn in 1314. His son William died in Spain in 1330 beside Sir James Douglas, at Teba, while carrying Bruce's heart towards the Holy Land.

A marriage then took the family far to the north. In 1379 Henry Sinclair made good a claim through his mother to the earldom of Orkney, which he held from the King of Norway. Much has been written about a voyage he is supposed to have made to North America in 1398. No writer of his own time mentions it, and historians treat it as a modern myth. A later William, third Sinclair earl, was Chancellor of Scotland in the 1450s. He founded Rosslyn Chapel in 1446 and was made Earl of Caithness in 1455. When Orkney passed to the Scottish crown around 1470 he gave up that earldom in exchange for Ravenscraig in Fife.

In 1476 Earl William divided his lands. Caithness went to one son, Roslin to another, and the eldest became Lord Sinclair. From then on the Caithness earls were the main line. The second earl, who built Girnigoe on the cliffs north of Wick, died at Flodden in 1513 with many of his name. The third fell at Summerdale in Orkney in 1529. Their successors spent the century in feuds with the Earls of Sutherland, who besieged Girnigoe without success in 1588. In 1606 the fifth earl enlarged Girnigoe and asked Parliament to rename it Castle Sinclair.

Debt nearly ended the earldom. In 1672 the sixth earl made over his estates to his creditor, Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy. When the earl died in 1676, Campbell claimed the earldom too. George Sinclair of Keiss, the nearer heir, contested it. Campbell beat him at Altimarlach near Wick in July 1680, but in 1681 Keiss was confirmed as earl. Campbell was made Earl of Breadalbane instead. The castle is now a ruin.

Sinclairs were found on both sides of the Jacobite risings. The Master of Sinclair fought for the Jacobites at Sheriffmuir in 1715, while in 1745 the Earl of Caithness supported the government. Since 1998 the Clan Sinclair Trust has been conserving Castle Sinclair Girnigoe.