Irish Sinclairs - (Part 2 of 4)

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From: The Saint-Clairs of the Isles, page 323, Chapter XIV.

             I R I S H    S C I O N S 

                             THE SINCLAIRS OF HOLYHILL.
               

    There are one or two further references to this family, viz.:--1. Early
in the 18th 
century Robert Lowry, grandfather of the first Lord Belmore, married Miss
Sinclair, 
daughter of the Rev. James Sinclair of Holyhill, County Down, and
granddaughter of 
sir James Sinclair of Caithness.*
     2. ROBERT SINCLAIR, recorder of York, who married, in 1811, Elizabeth
Sothern, 
daughter of Sothern of Darrington Hall, Yorkshire, was of this line.+  John
Sinclair of 
Freswick writes in 1782 from Knaresboro': "At York ther'se a very respectable 
sensible man, Councillor Robert Sinclair, of the Holyhill family, in
Ireland. He has a 
property there of £400 a year; is marry't here to a lady of good family, by
whom he will get £10,000. The late Mr. Pope of Reay knew to what family in
Caithness they were connected. He wants to know his descent, when they
emigrate, or when came of the Caithness family."*

THE SINCLAIRS OF BELFAST.

    This branch of the family has been located in the town of Belfast since
the closing 
years of the seventeenth century.
     I. WILLIAM SINCLAIRE was born in the neighbourhood of Newtonards, County
Down, in 1679, and became one of the leading merchants in Belfast. He died
in 1759, 
leaving several sons and daughters.
     II. THOMAS SINCLAIRE, eldest son of the preceding (born 1719, died
1798), 
succeeded his father in business, and was for many years one of the largest
shippers to America of linen cloth. He married, in 1753, Esther Eccles,
daughter of Thomas 
Pottinger of Belfast (by his wife, Lady Grisetta, daughter of the sixth
Earl of 
Dundonald), and by her had a large family.
     III. THOMAS SINCLAIRE, the eldest son, died without leaving male issue.
     IV. JOHN SINCLAIRE, the second son (born in Belfast, 1764, died 1857),
married, 
in 1792, Margaret, daughter of Surgeon John Clarke of Belfast, and had nine
children, 
of whom--
        1. THOMAS, born in Belfast.   2. WILLIAM, married and had issue;
died in New York.
        3. JOHN, unmarried; died in early manhood.
        4. RICHARD SINCLAIRE, of Upper Falls, Belfast, the youngest son of
John                              Sinclaire, is now the senior
representative branch of the family at present
          resident in Ireland. He was born in 1811, and married Isabel
McKee, who 
          died in 1881, by whom he has issue--
               1. MARGARET, married W. Allardice.     2. ISABEL, married
Mr. Neill.
               3. RICHARD KER, resident at Auckland City, New Zealand; born
1857;                married 1889, Ellen Stevenson. Issue--
                        I. ISABEL.     2. VIOLET GWENDOLINE.       3.
RICHARD STANLEY.
                        4. ALBERT WILLIAM.      5. ELLEN.
               4. GEORGE HUTCHINSON, resident in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.
               5. WILLIAM RITCHIE.     6. HENRY.        7. CLARA.
               8. CATHERINE.           9. MABEL.       10. ALBERT, deceased.
     V. THOMAS SINCLAIRE, eldest son of John Sinclaire; born in Belfast,
1796, died
1860; married, in 1830, Augusta, daughter of Conway Montgomery,
barrister-at-law. 
Issue--
        1. AUGUSTA,     2. THOMAS,      3. MARY,     4. CONWAY; (all dead.)
        5. JOHN, of whom as VI.      6. EMILY, married William Millar,
Merchant, and died s.p.

* Henderson.                   +Sinclairs of England.THE SINCLAIRS OF
HOLYHILL.*
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