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Re: The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment)



Dear Cousin Ian,
    Your communication on the Royal Scots has answered a query of mine to
which I have sought an answer for years.  Even the "experts" havent been any
help.  I have always seen and heard of the Sinclair foot and The Sinclair
Horse at Culloden, but no one until now has been able to give me any
information about them. Many Thanks!!

Yours Aye,

David
-----Original Message-----
From: IAIN LAIRD <IainLaird@compuserve.com>
To: Sinclair-Digest <sinclair@mids.org>
Cc: Malcolm Caithness <sinclairclanchief@girnigoetrust.freeserve.co.uk>;
Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>; Jim Munro <jim.munro@dial.pipex.com>;
Justin C Crawford <100044.63@compuserve.com>;
clancmdr@macaulay09.freeserve.co.uk <clancmdr@macaulay09.freeserve.co.uk>;
Chris Maile <cjmaile@online.no>; Donald & Mary Sinclair <DJHSMFS@aol.com>;
David Sinclair <girnigoe@sarindel.demon.co.uk>; Ian Sinclair - Manchester
<iansinclair@nosshead.freeserve.co.uk>; Bill Sutherland
<wsutherland@easynet.com.uk>; Alasdair Laird <Agalaird@aol.com>
Date: Saturday, July 24, 1999 4:08 AM
Subject: The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment)


>Yesterday evening our Clan Chief, the Rt Hon Malcolm Sinclair, the Earl of
>Caithness was our guest at a cocktail party of The Royal Scots (The Royal
>Regiment) hosted by Lord Swinfen at the House of Lords.  It was a glorious
>summer evening in the heart of the capital and everyone was in good
>spirits.  The Royal Scots are the oldest regiment of infantry  in the
>British Army. formally raised for service in Sweden in 1633 and after with
>Scotland's old ally, France, and are the 1st Regiment of Foot.  Their
>nickname is "Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard", for, in the 17th Century, in
>French service, they once found themselves alongside the French Regiment of
>Picardy, who asserted they were the older regiment, having been on guard at
>the Crucifixion.  The Royals claimed they were there too, as bodyguards to
>the Governor!  While the Regiment of Caithness was the Seaforths (with whom
>Niven Sinclair served), now amalgamated with the Cameron Highlanders and
>the Gordon Highlanders as The Highlanders, many Sinclairs have served with
>The Royal Scots throughout a glorious history.  Malcolm Caithness was
>therefore at the party in two rights of his own, not only as a member of
>the House, but representing his family's strong connections with the
>Regiment.  The following is an account of the most famous Sinclair of the
>Royals, a Colonel of the Regiment in the 18th Century compiled by Captain
>Sutherland of the Regiment's Headquarters in Edinburgh Castle:
>
>HON. JAMES ST. CLAIR
>
>Colonel of the Regiment  1737-1762
>
>He is often called "Lord Sinclair", but this title though he possessed it
>de jure was never assumed by him.  He was the second son of Henry St.
>Clair, 10th Lord Sinclair, and brother of John, Master of Sinclair who had
>been attainted for his share in the rising of 1715.   Born in 1688,
>he entered the army when only a child, and was an Ensign in The Royal
>Regiment, 22nd May, 1694.   He served in the regiment as a Captain at
>Malplaquet, having been promoted to that rank on 2nd November, 1708.   He
>was on half-pay in 1713, and exchanged in to the 3rd Foot Guards, in which
>he was Major in 1725, though Brevet-Colonel in the army, 1722.   ("Scots
>Peerage", vii. 588).   He held the Lieut. Governorship of Berwick in 1733.
>In October, 1734, King George II. appointed him Colonel of the 22nd Foot,
>on the 27th June, 1737, he became Colonel of The Royal Regiment, which he
>commanded until his death.   He obtained the rank of Brigadier-General, 2nd
>July, 1739, and of Major-General August, 1741.   He became
>Quarter-master-General of the British Forces in Flanders, 1745, under the
>Duke of Cumberland and Lieut. -General, 4th June 1745.  He commanded the
>regiment (known as St. Clair's) at the Battle of Culloden on the 16th April
>, 1746, though the regiment took its traditional position as the senior
>regiment, on the right of the line, and did not receive the highland charge
>that came at the end of the battle, which hit the left of the Government
>line, ending in victory for the Government over the Jacobite forces of the
>Young Pretender, Prince Charles Edward Stuart.  Ironically the Clan
>Sinclair, remote in Caithness, had only just declared for the Jacobites and
>on learning of the defeat went quietly home.  Such family divisions were a
>feature of the Jacobite Risings, and the battles of the '15 and '45 saw
>Scots on both sides, and were not, as is often believed, English-Scots
>conflicts.  He was Commander-in-Chief of a force that, originally embarked
>to attack Quebec, landed at Port L'Orient in Brittany, and eventually
>destroyed the forts of Quiberon, 4th-l7th October, 1746.   In 1748, he
>attended the combined Hungarian and Sardinian Armies, in Italy, as
>representative of the British Government. On 10th March, 1761, he was
>gazetted General in the Army.   He was employed later on an Embassy to the
>Courts of Vienna and Turin, during which time, as during his French
>Expedition, David Hume, the historian was his Secretary. On the death
>(issueless) of his elder brother the attained Master of Sinclair in 1750 he
>became entitled to that peerage, but he never assumed the title, preferring
>to remain a member of the House of Commons.   He was M.P. for Dysart
>Burghs, 1722-34; for Sutherlandshire, 1736-7; for Dysart Burghs, 1747-54,
>and for Fifeshire, 1754-61, 1761-63.   He was also at one period Governor
>of Cork.   (Foster's "Members of Parliament, Scotland", p.315). In 1735, he
>purchased the estates of Rosslyn Castle, Ravenscraig, and Dysart, and
>entailed them, failing his own issue, on the heirs male of his sisters.
>He married Janet, widow of Sir John Baird of Newbyth.   Baronet, and
>youngest daughter of the Hon. Sir David Dalrymple of Hailes, but by her,
>who survived him and died 8th January, 1766, had no issue.   He himself
>died at Dysart, aged seventy four, 30th November, 1762.  He was succeeded
>in the Colonelcy by his nephew.
>
>The Regiment's recruiting area is in Edinburgh and the Lothians (including
>Rosslyn), but the officers come from all over Scotland and include those of
>Scots descent and sympathy from throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.
>The Regiment still needs its Sinclairs!
>
>Yours aye
>
>Iain Laird
>
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