Re: Clan Sinclair Archeological Finds and Genealogy tips

[Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>]

At 12:32 19/08/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear Cousins,
>     I hope you will all visit this site.  It is fascinating!!
>Other items of genealogical interest to some:
>watch for the entire 1790-1920 US census to be available later this year
>from Sierra Home's "Generations" and Heritage Quest at
>www.GenealogyDatabase.com  This is the equivalent of 12,555 rolls of
>microfild, and will be digital images!--
>
>print out maps at www.topoZone.com
>  Civil War pension cards (as images are "seeable" at www.ancestry.com
>I haven't looked at any of these so hope they work for you.
>Laurel
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <dhinchey@together.net>
>To: <sinclair@matrix.net>
>Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2000 11:10 AM
>Subject: Clan Sinclair Archeological Finds ?
>
>
> > Dear Folks,
> >
> > Please allow me to inform you of some very interesting developments.
>Perhaps you already know of them but they came to my attention from
>participating in a discussion list involving megalithic stones and
>archeology associated with the Gaels in general.
> >
> > Today I received a post from one " Michael Bradley," of
> >          38 Pacific Ave.
> >          Toronto,  Ontario
> >          CANADA  M6P  2P3
> >          (416) 767-4257 Phone/Fax
> >          E-mail: michaelbradley@sympatico.ca
> >
> > He has written an unpublished article about signs of Clan Sinclair in the
>environs of Lake Memphremagog of northern Vermont. The analysis is very
>exciting, and doubly so if one is of Clan Sinclair. I place hereunder an
>excerpt of the indicated text which is available with photos at:
> >
> > http://sites.netscape.net/bradleymichaela/Memphremagog.htm
> >
> > This article is of more than passing interest to me because I live only 70
>miles away from the discussed site in Vermont. I hope you all enjoy reading
>about this and seeing the photos available at Mr. Bradley's website.The
>material is actually mind boggling, if authentic, as it appears to be.
> >
> > Dale Hinchey
> >
> > Clan Donald [Isles]


Yes, the article is fascinating but not in the least surprising.

So far, we have only scratched the surface of the activities of Prince Henry
Sinclair's expedition(s) to the New World.

It is becoming increasingly evident that he made more than one voyage in
order to re-enforce the Norse settlements already in existence.  After all
we know there were Norse settlements on the American Continent because
(a) in 1121 Bishop Erik sailed from Greenland to administer to his flock in
      Vinland.  He never returned to Greenland so is thought to have died 
in Vinland
(b) in 1354 King Magnus of Norway instructs Paul Knutson to get an 
expedition ready
      to go to Vinland because he had learned that the (Norse) settlers had 
'gone native'
       and he wanted them to return to the true faith.

In support of this, I have just had additional information from Norway 
which further substantiates
Henry's meeting with Paul Knutson and Ivar Baardson in Copenhagen in 1364
on the return of these two men from the New World and from Greenland 
respectively.
Ivar Baardson, who had been the Bishop's Deputy in Greenland for 23 years, 
reported
on a mass emigration from Greenland to the New World.  He also told about the
monastery which was heated by hot springs.  All this information was 
conveyed to Henry
who, in the fullness of time, conveyed it to Nicolo Zeno.
Carlo Zeno, the brother of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, was also in Copenhagen at
the material time accompanying King Peter of Cyprus.  He, too, would have 
met up
with Henry, with Ivar Bardsson and with Paul Knutson.

The seeds for Henry's subsequent voyage of 1398 were planted at this time but
couldn't be given effect until Henry had been granted the 'jarldom' of 
Orkney (comprising
200 islands in the North Atlantic - the stepping stones to the New World) 
in 1379.
The detailed planning took place on 23rd April, 1391 at Kirkwall i.e. after 
the Nicolo
Zeno had arrived and once Henry Sinclair had established his absolute 
control over
his island principality.

In preparation, Henry travelled to London in 1392 to obtain 3 ships from 
King Richard II
and Nicolo Zeno carried out his survey of Greenland 1393 - 1395 to pave the 
way for
the voyage to the New World three years later.

We now know that a further 8 ships were delivered from Venice to a 
"Northern European
port" after the suppression of the Templars.  Did these ships form part of 
Henry's great
fleet?

The planning for the voyage was meticulous.  Nevertheless, Henry knew 
precisely where
he was going.  He had the portolan (?) maps because, according to Richard 
Hakluyt:
"Those names were placed upon the charts and are the same as Henry Sinclair 
used
   and are affixed to his maps, now in the possession of the Hakluyt 
Society in London,
   a reproduction of which may be found in Ridpath's "History of America"

It is now time for a definitive work to be written on Prince Henry 
Sinclair's voyage
because, since the days of Frederick Pohl, much has been discovered. 
Furthermore,
we have  the advantage of the works by Michael Bradley, Andrew Sinclair, 
Mark Finnan,
William Mann, Tim Wallace-Murphy and others to sift and analyse.

The Scandinavian, the Vatican and the Venetian archives deserve much more 
attention than they have received to date.

Niven Sinclair

> > *********************************************************
> > Text:
> > ********************************************************
> >
> > "On July 28, 2000, a Toronto resident with a cottage on Lake Memphremagog
>revealed two "discoveries" that may change North American history.  Lake
>Memphremagog, 100 kilometres southeast of Montreal, is a long narrow lake
>(some 45 kilometres long and only 7 kilometres wide) that straddles the
>Quebec-Vermont border in the beautiful foothills of the Green Mountains.
> >
> > About twenty-five years ago, Laura Beazley's father discovered, beneath
>their cottage on Lake Memphramagog, an iron object that seemed to be a
>spear-head.  This curiosity was given to then-teenage Laura because she had
>been interested in archeology from an even earlier age.  Sensitized by this
>apparent spear-head, Laura kept her eyes open looking for other unusual
>things when the family, and later she alone, visited the cottage.
> >
> >
> > In the summer of 1998, Laura noticed that a curiously disfigured boulder
>not far from the cottage on the shore of the lake seemed remarkably similar
>to the outline of an obscure 14th century coat-of-arms.   This coat-of-arms
>was that of Henry Sinclair, Baron of Roslin (Scotland) and Earl of Orkney as
>reproduced in an obscure 14th century heraldry book called the Armorial de
>Gelre.  American historian Frederick Pohl had first brought this
>coat-of-arms to notice in his book Prince Henry Sinclair in which he argued
>that this Scottish-Scandinavian nobleman (AD 1345-1400) had actually
>"discovered" North America in 1398 - ninety-four years before Christopher
>Columbus and ninety-nine years before John Cabot.
> >
> > Quoting an obscure medieval document known as "The Zeno Narrative",
>thought to have been composed about AD 1400 by two navigators in Sinclair's
>service, Pohl presented geographic evidence that the settlement Sinclair is
>said to have established in "Estotiland" had been in Nova Scotia.  Actually,
>University of Michigan geologist William Herbert Hobbs had previously argued
>the same thing in the January 1951 issue of the prestigious Scientific
>Monthly, but Frederick Pohl brought this obscure episode of history to more
>general knowledge in a popular book.
> >
> > Sinclair did not mistake the new land for the realm of the Great Khan,
>like Columbus.  The narrative of his transatlantic voyage states that
>"Estotiland" was part of a vast nuovo mundo - a "New World" - and so, so
>much for Amerigo Vespucci's realization, or "discovery".
> >
> > It was not until July 2000 that an acquaintance of Laura's, Joelle Laurol
>of Toronto, noticed another illustration  opposite the coat-of-arms on the
>boulder.  Apparently carved, these features seemed to be a fairly accurate
>map of the North American Atlantic coast from Yucatan to Nova Scotia
>(although the "northeastern" coast was progressively obscured by a growth of
>lichen).
> >
> > The iron spear-head seems an indisputable "hard artifact" in both the
>literal and figurative senses of the phrase.  And, of course, Europeans
>commonly used iron spear-heads only up to about AD 1450-1500 when most hand
>weapons were superceded by firearms.  Colonials didn't normally make
>spear-heads either - while the "Indians" were not supposed to have used iron
>at all. ................
> >
> > [Visit the web site to read the rest!]
> >
> >
> > ******************************************************
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@mids.org
> > [ To get off or on the list, see http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html
>
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