----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2000 11:50
PM
Subject: Hawai'i Sinclairs
Greetings from Hawai'i....I am new to the list,
well fairly new-I've been lurking behind the scenes for a few weeks
and have been thoroughly enjoying all the conversation. I am
new to researching my ancestry and am fortunate that my mother pieced together
a great deal up to a point. So I am asking for assistance from
anyone for information about the ancestry of Captain Francis
Sinclair. His father was Sir George Sinclair. I am wanting
to learn about my ancestry from Captain Francis Sinclair back to
whenever! Here is a little bit about the Hawai'i
Sinclairs.....
I am the g-g-g granddaughter of Captain Francis
Sinclair (b. ?/?/1797 in Edinburgh) and Elizabeth "Eliza" McHutcheson
Sinclair,
(b. 4/26/1800 in Glasgow) who left Scotland in
1839 and settled in Pigeon Bay, New Zealand. Francis and their eldest
son, George, were lost at sea in 1846 on a trip to Wellington. They made
many attempts to find them but found nothing. Eliza was 46 at the
time. They stayed in NZ until the spring of 1863. After purchasing a 300
ton barque named Bessie, Captain Thomas Gay who was married to Eliza's
eldest daughter, Jean Robertson (b. 3/?/1823 in Stirling), sailed them
to Hawai'i where they purchased the island of Ni'ihau from King
Kamehameha in 1864 and some years later purchased a large pie-shaped piece of
land (from the top of the mountain to the shore called an ahupua'a in
Hawaiian) on the island of Kaua'i from the King. Francis and Eliza's
daughter, Helen McHutcheson (b. 5/?/1826 in Stirling), married Charles
Barrington Robinson while in NZ. Their son, Aubrey (my g-grandfather)
was born in NZ and married his first cousin, Alice Gay(born 3/17/1865 on
Ni'ihau), daughter of Captain Thomas & Jean Gay. Aubrey and Alice
Robinson had 5 children, Sinclair (they always pronounced it Sinkler), Selwyn,
Alymer, Lester and Eleanor. Sinclair was my grandfather. To this
day, there are many of us who still live on the piece of land on Kaua'i
purchased by Eliza. We grow sugar on about 7,000 acres and we also have
a cattle ranch! The island of Ni'ihau is presently owned by my cousins
Bruce & Keith Robinson. Have I bored you endlessly? There is
so much more to this story but this is it in a nutshell!
I am very proud of my heritage and thrilled to be
included on this list with so many fine people. You know things happen
not by accident but by Nature, God, Spirit, whatever you choose to call
it, working in wondrous ways. I recently met Jimmy Cosmo, an actor from
Scotland, a star in my favorite movie, Braveheart, who told me of the Sinclair
Clan website which somehow routed me to this discussion list. A week
after meeting Jimmy I was in our local bookstore looking for I can't remember
what and I was literally pulled over to a table with soft cover books where a
book stared at me....no other book did I see....but "Rosslyn, Guardian of the
Secrets of the Holy Grail" by Tim Wallace-Murphy. You know the
saying, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears!" Well, I was
ready! I have completed reading "Rosslyn" and am on to "Rex Deus".
I am honored to be on this list with the likes of Tim, Katherine Kurtz,
Malcolm Sinclair, Niven Sinclair and Ian Sinclair. When I read
all of your messages, I realize how much I don't know about the Sinclairs and
the history of Scotland and about how much I am enjoying this adventure of
learning where I come from and reading all of your stories. What a
fascinating group!
I have been in touch with Malcolm, Niven and Ian
Sinclair and while they are consumed with the Clan Gathering this month, they
have been most helpful in pointing me in the direction of where to find more
information. Have any of you ever heard of Captain Francis Sinclair or
his father, Sir George Sinclair? I believe George was from
Prestonpans.
Thank you so much for any assistance you can
offer.
Aloha pumehana,
Katherine A.
Weir