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Clan Sinclair

COMMIT THY WORK TO GOD


While there are no certain records regarding the origin of clan Sinclair, it is most likely that the family came from St. Clare in Normandy and later adopted the spelling of Sinclair.

The family was granted the Barony of Roslin during the twelfth century and, through marriage, the Earldom of Orkney and were later granted lands in Caithness. When Sinclair lands had to be sold to pay debts, arguments surrounding the rights to estates resulted in a battle between the family and the Campbells on the bank of a river. After the battle, it has been said that the Campbells were able to cross the river without getting their feet wet.

The Sinclair clan motto is "commit thy work to God" and their clan crest is a cockerel.

Scottish History

of Clan Sinclair


Raiders from the north

Proud of a genealogy that can be traced back to at least the ninth century, the Sinclairs have not only played a prominent role in Scotland’s turbulent history, but are reputed to be the custodians of a secret tradition stretching back to the time of Jesus.

Their roots lie in distant Norway, from where they embarked in their longships to raid, ravage, and pillage before settling in what became known as Norse-man’s-land, better known as Normandy, in France.

By 912 they had risen to great power and influence, owning vast tracts of land and mighty strongholds. A force to be reckoned with, their leader, Rollo, signed a treaty with Charles III of France that created him Count of Rouen.

The treaty was signed at the castle of St Clair-sur-Epte, named after a hermit, and it was from this location that they took the name St. Clair, more popularly recognised today as Sinclair, and reckoned to be one of the oldest surnames in Europe.

Nine Sinclair knights fought with great distinction on the side of their fellow Norman, William the Conqueror, at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, a battle that paved the way for the Norman supremacy in England, and it was either one of these knights, or a relative, who later settled in Scotland.

A Henry Sinclair is recorded as holding lands in Lothian in 1162, while Sir William Sinclair, a guardian of the young Alexander III, was granted the barony of Rosslyn, in Midlothian, in 1280.

The Sinclairs had obviously inherited the martial prowess of their descendants who had fought at Hastings, for in 1303, Sir Henry Sinclair was one of the Scottish commanders at the bloody Battle of Roslin fought on his own lands of Rosslyn between a force of 30,000 and only 8,000 Scots.

Despite the overwhelming odds against them, the Scots won the day. Old place names in the area are reminders of the battle.

There is ‘Shin-banes Field’, where hundreds of bones were uncovered years after the battle, and the ‘Stinking Rig’, where, according to one chronicler ‘multitudes of the slain were buried, and, not being sufficiently covered, emitted an intolerable stench’.

There is also the ‘Killburn’, a brook that was said to have been discoloured with blood for three days after the battle.

Sir Henry also fought in the cause of Scotland’s freedom eleven years later at the Battle of Bannockburn. He was also one of the signatories of the famous Declaration of Arbroath of 1320, while his brother William, Bishop of Dunkeld, led an army that repulsed a force of English at Donibristle in 1317.

Two of Sir Henry’s sons, William and John, were among the knights who accompanied Sir James Douglas on a mission in 1330 to bury the heart of the great warrior king Robert the Bruce in the Holy Land.

Attacked by Moors while travelling through Spain, Lord James and the two Sinclair brothers were killed, but the heart of Bruce was returned to Scotland and buried in the grounds of Melrose Abbey, in the Borders.

A grandson of Sir Henry is recognised as having laid the foundation for the Sinclairs’ great territories in the distant northern realms of Scotland, through his marriage to Isabella, Countess of Orkney, while one of his descendants, also named Henry, inherited the title of Earl of Orkney in 1379.

Known as the Prince of Orkney, the blood of his seafaring Norse ancestors coursed strongly through his veins. He conquered the Faroe Islands in 1391, gained control of Shetland, and in 1398 embarked on a remarkable voyage across the Atlantic in a fleet of twelve ships, along with the Venetian navigator Antonio Zeno.

A rare chart known as the Zeno Map, in addition to archaeological finds, reveals that they explored modern day Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Massachusetts, indicating that a Sinclair was responsible for discovering America a century before Columbus.

The northern power of the Sinclairs was increased in 1455 when King James II granted William, the third Sinclair Earl of Orkney, the earldom of Caithness. The Earl of Caithness is recognised to this day as chief of the Clan Sinclair.

The Sinclairs lost the earldom of Orkney in 1470 when they were forced to ‘resign’ it to James III in exchange for Ravenscraig Castle, in Fife.

Secret of the Holy Grail

Standing on the edge of the scenic Esk Valley near the village of Roslin, in Midlothian, and attracting thousands of visitors every year is the mysterious Rosslyn Chapel, built in 1446 by William Sinclair, who was created Lord Sinclair in 1449.

Founded as a collegiate church and consecrated to St Matthew it is thought to encode in stone a mystery that links a band of warrior monks who were known as the Knights Templar, the origins of Scottish Freemasonry, and a secret relating to the Holy Grail.

It had been intended that the chapel be built in the form of a cross, with a tower in the centre - but it was never completed. Only the east transept and the choir were built.

Built in a style described as ‘florid Gothic’, it is famous for its Apprentice’s Pillar, which stands in the south-east corner.

Decorated with four wreaths of flowers, spiralling from base to crown, it is the subject of a curious legend – that the Master Mason, jealous of the skill of a young apprentice who sculpted the pillar, killed him with a blow to the forehead.

With strange echoes of Freemasonic legend, three stone heads at the west of the chapel commemorate this slaying.

One is thought to be the apprentice’s mother, and is known as The Widowed Mother, while one depicts the apprentice with a gash above his right eye, and the other depicts the Master Mason.

This is taken as evidence that the masons who built the chapel were privy to esoteric knowledge that had been transmitted to them through those Knights Templar who had sought refuge in Scotland after being outlawed by Papal Bull in 1307.

The Templars, who had been formed in 1118 to guard the pilgrim routes to the Holy Land, are thought to have excavated the ruins of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, and unearthed an awesome secret relating to Christianity.

Some claim the secret may have been in the form of ancient parchments – or even the famed Holy Grail of the Last Supper itself. Another theory is that the grail may not be an actual vessel, or cup, but a secret relating to the bloodline of Christ.

A persistent claim is that a body of refugee Templars fought on the side of Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn, and that their secret knowledge was later transmitted, through what became Scottish Freemasonry, to some of Scotland’s noblest families, including the Sinclairs.

Sir William Sinclair, some believe, may actually have built Rosslyn Chapel as a repository for the secrets of the Templars.

Twelve Sinclair barons are known to be buried in sealed vaults beneath the chapel, laid to rest in full armour. Who knows what else may lie gathering the dust of centuries in these sealed vaults.

There is also a legend that was familiar to Sir Walter Scott. In The Lay of the Last Minstrel, he wrote of how on the eve of a Sinclair’s death a lurid red light fills the chapel.

There is a tradition that, in 1441, James II had appointed a Sinclair of Rosslyn as Patron and Protector of Scottish Masons, and that the office was hereditary.

In 1628 a charter was drawn up by William Schaw, Master of Works to James VI that sought to obtain from the king the right of the Sinclairs to be recognised as having jurisdiction over masons as patrons and judges.

The Charter argued that it had been recognised from age to age that the lairds of Roslin had been patrons and protectors of the Craft and its privileges, and that this had ‘died out through neglect’.

The attempt to gain royal patronage failed, however. What may have hindered the attempt was that at this period the Roman Catholic William Sinclair was in such trouble with his local presbytery for his persistent ‘lewd’ behaviour that he was forced to retire to Ireland.

In 1736, however, it was a Sinclair of Rosslyn who was appointed the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland – after having renounced his hereditary claims to the title.

The Sinclairs had never been able to furnish proof that they had been granted the hereditary title of patron and protector of masons, and there is a possibility that the original charters granting this privilege may either have been destroyed by fire or pillaged by Cromwell’s troops in 1650 when they attacked Roslin Castle.

The Sinclairs of the West of Scotland, particularly in Argyllshire, provide a possible curious link to the Sinclairs of Rosslyn and their connection to Freemasonry.

Their Gaelic name is Clann-na-Cearda – Children of the Craft, or Craftsmen. ‘Craftsman’ is thought to refer to a goldsmith or tinsmith, but it is possible it may also refer to the ‘Craft’ of Masonry.

One of the Sinclair sept names, meanwhile, is ‘Mason’, as is ‘Caird’, from the Gaelic ‘Ceard’.

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Family History Mini Book


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