Re: A not-important question

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

At 22:07 26/06/01 -0400, you wrote:

>Does it really matter whether we are Sins or Saints?  I was led to believe
>that the roots of this massive tree branched even within immediate families
>as we have some of Alexander and Waymon Sinkler's sons taking one or the
>other version of the name and proudly so.  Although my family is of the Saint
>variety I wonder if you Sins have more fun?  Truly meant in jest no offense
>intended but it was too easy to have a chuckle over this one.  Charlotte
>Gellis, granddaughter of Charles Pendleton StClair


  A rose by any other name can  swell as sweet.

I only wish I had the time to disclose all the information which I have gleaned
about the St Clairs/Sinclairs from "The Domesday Book" and a wealth of other
material which I have been collecting and assimilating over the years and which
will eventually find its way to join the Niven Sinclair Library and Study 
Centre at
Noss Head in Caithness.

Sufficient be it to say that no other Clan has our history.  It is summed up in
the following words:
                 "The hill of Danbury in Essex by the Thames beneath London is
                   a landmark and a tower to this lineage, as it has been 
for ages
                   to the World's greatest city and its chapel* will always 
stand
                   fixed to the memory as something notable that has been.

                 "All that was highest in marriage, in lands and in office 
they had
                   in England for nearly a century after the Conquest and 
the glow
                   of their fame, and their physical and intellectual 
powers kept
                   them high for centuries afterwards in a way which is 
rare to any
                   one particular lineage."

* the Chapel referred to is the one at Danbury - not the famous Rosslyn 
Chapel which
   was built by Earl William Sinclair between 1446 - 1481.

The Sinclairs who are buried at Danbury (in leaded coffins) had followed 
the standard
of the cross on the Crusades as had Henri de St Clair (the first Sinclair 
to be born in
Scotland) and his cousin, Simon de Senlis.  There are beautiful wooden 
effigies of
four of the Sinclairs who are buried at Danbury which is a village some 
five miles
from Chelmsford and within twenty miles of the great Sinclair Castle of 
Colchester.
A John Sinclair was an Earl of Essex.  Eudo Sinclair, the dapifer to 
William 'the
Conqueror', built Colchester Castle.  His cousin Hamo succeeded him as 
'dapifer'
when Eudo decided to retire to 'enjoy the orchards' which he had planted in 
England's
green and pleasant land.   His legacy can still be seen.

Our opportunity has just begun.

Niven Sinclair