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Re: St Clairs of the Isles--Locations

At 19:44 25/09/00 -0400, you wrote:
Dear Ian:
Good work on putting this on the list!
Those books show up in the most amazing places.
A few months ago, I accompanied Malcolm Caithness to a meeting with Lister
Sinclair here in Toronto. Those who are not Canadian will not know that
Lister is a broadcaster and has been one in Canada since the late 1940's.
He has a couple of PhD.'s, is knowledgeable about practically anything and
is known by more Canadians than practically any other public personage.  He
brought with him his copy of St. Clair of the Isles and to whom do you think
it originally belonged?  Alexander MacLean Sinclair of Goshen Nova Scotia,
and author of the Sinclairs of Rosslyn, Caithness and Goshen (1901) as well
as the definitive work on the MacLeans.  His signature was in the front
cover and now so is Malcolm's.  Not a big story just a nice one.
Aye,
Rory
-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Sinclair <sinclrig@netspace.net.au>
To: sinclair@matrix.net <sinclair@matrix.net>
Date: Monday, September 25, 2000 6:35 AM
Subject: Re: St Clairs of the Isles--Locations


>To all interested parties
>
>The book was published in ASuckland NZ  in 1989 by R Brett



The St Clairs of the Isles and the Sea-Kings of Orkney

Ian: your fingers were in the wrong places. The year of publication was, of course, 1898 by H. Brett

 Unfortunately, he did not cover the Sinclairs of Canada which is an unfortunate omission in an
otherwise excellent book which has been my constant bible for many years.

My own copy belonged (at one time) to the Reverend John Sinclair, Earl of Caithness, whose somewhat
acerbic annotations (about some of his less venerable kin) make the book even more valuable in my eyes.

For example, his comments about the commercially successful (and rich) Sinclairs of Stevenson run as
follows: "Worthless thieves and frauds who robbed the real people of their rights. May God condemn
them to perish"  which, you may think, is rather strong language for a Minister of the Church to use -
far less a Minister who was also the hereditary chief of the Clan!!  One would imagine that his Sunday sermons
were of hell-fire and brimstone variety!  Fierce rhetoric designed to keep his congregation in fear of everlasting
damnation!!  He himself lived in some style in a palatial manse at Kinloch Rannoch in Perthshire.  No cold
baths for him!!   Doubtless, fine port would be seen as an essential part of his evening meals (served by an
suitably attired wench on a wage of £1 per month).  How do I know?  We had such  wenches who, after six
months tutelage in 'domestic science' (as it would be called today) from my mother, were considered to be highly-prized marriageable propositions.  The local lads (many of whom never returned from the 1939-45 war) snatched them up.

Little did we know it but they (wenches and lads alike) were the salt of the earth.  We were the dross.

Niven Sinclair

>
>Among the list of subscribers before print were:
>Library of Christiana University, Norway
>R Flaws & son, Manchester buildings, Melinda St. Toronto
>Ottawa Parliamentary Library, Ottawa, canada
>Toronto Public Library, Toronto
>Sydney Public Library, Sydney, New South Wales
>The Viking Club, 17 Westminster rd, London
>The Mitchell Library, 21 Miller St, Glasgow
>Douglas & Foulis, 9 castle St, Edinburgh
>
>This may a starting point for some good research / detective work
>
>Ian Sinclair
>Melbourne Australia
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: CMelahn@aol.com <CMelahn@aol.com>
>To: sinclair@matrix.net <sinclair@matrix.net>
>Date: Monday, 25 September 2000 4:51
>Subject: St Clairs of the Isles--Locations
>
>
>>Seeing the recent mention of the  "The St. Clairs of the Isles"  by Roland
>>St. Clair of New Zealand, I wonder if we have a listing of where copies
>might
>>be available to researchers?
>>
>>I visited Kansas City recently and was surprised to find a copy in the
>>Genealogical Collection of the main public library in downtown Kansas
City.
>>
>>Others know of locations where this book is publicly available?  Add a
list
>>of these locations to our web pages?
>>
>>Chris
>>[ 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
>
>[ 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
>

[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@mids.org
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