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Dear Cousins,
From the Lakota ND. souvenir booklet I shall
quote: "A modest man, he always referred to himself as Mr.
Sinclair though he held these titles: BARONET OF NOVA SCOTIA, Lord
Berridale of Scotland, and later Earl of Caithness.
Coming To Lakota on 1884, he bought 3040 acres
of land about six miles NE. He ran a dairy herd of 50 or more purebred
dairy cows. In a model creamery on his farm 50 pds of butter were
made daily. This packaged in five pd. packages and a large part of it sent
to Montana. The rest of it was sold at the back doors in Lakota to regular
customers by the noble-born gentlemen himself. Surely this would be an
unusal occurrence anywhere but imagine a member of the Scottish nobility
peddling butter in Lakota. Only his genteel manners and the quality of his
impeccable attire hinted of the fact of his noble lineage. A special accent of
his courtly appearance was a bright red silken sash. Many of his workers
came from Scotland, their transportation paid for them by the Earl.
In 1905 Lord Berridale returned to Scotland to
take over his hereditary estate as Earl of Caithness. This estate
consisted of a strip of land ten miles wide clear across the north of
Scotland. The next few years he spent repairing his castle and tenant
houses. Then returning to the US. he engaged in various mining ventures
in
California and for a time lived in Peace River
territory of Canada.
He lived Quietly at the Balboa Hotel in LA. for
3 yrs. After a few years, injured in an
auto accident, he died and was buried inForestlawn Cemetary."
In my mind the burning question haunts....Why
Baronet of Nova Scotia??? After all the spilled ink of Prince Henrys voyage in
1398, is this a silver thread to Kirkwall or just another
"coincidence"?? Perhaps one of you experts on Herealdry can
comment!
Wm. F. St. Clair
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