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Re: Sinclair's kidnapped or shipped as indentured servants



At 09:29 01/12/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello Cousins & Friends,
>     I am stuck on my earliest ancestor, William Sinclair, who first appears
>in Quaker records declaring his marriage intentions at Providence preparative
>meeting in 1708 (Concord, PA monthly meeting).  After his marriage he and his
>wife, Phebe, became very active in the Quaker meetings they belonged to.
>There is no record of William's removal from a Quaker meeting in Britain or
>ship's passage to PA.  In 1693 a Robert Sinclair appears in Chester county
>court as an indentured servant, brought from Scotland. He adopted the Quaker
>faith and settled in Nottingham, PA, after the term of his indenture.  In
>1710 (the year after William & Phebe's marriage) a Margaret Sinclair married
>Joseph Brown (Quaker) only a few miles from William's Quaker meeting house
>and they settled in Nottingham, PA.
>     These 3 Sinclair's have the Quaker faith in common and all 3 are first
>recorded in roughly the same area (Chester county between Crum & Ridley
>creeks).  2 of them first appear at their own marriages and 2 of them settle
>in the same meeting place. We know that Robert is from Scotland but don't
>know the exact details of his arrival.
>     Can anyone shed some light on these "homeless" Sinclairs?
>Lynn Sinclair
>Delaware, USA
>[ 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


The St Clairs of the Isles gives us the following information about 
Sinclairs arriving in
Northumberland County, Pennsylvania:

Duncan Sinclair, a weaver, had three brothers, Neale, John and 
Archibald.  He also had
one sister, Margaret.  They were all born in Scotland.  Their father (whose 
name is not
given) had one brother  (whose name is also omitted).  They fled from 
Scotland to
Northern Ireland to escape religious or political persecution.  They went 
there about
1762 (so already we see that they could not have ben related to your 
William Sinclair
or Robert Sinclair who, you said, arrived in Pennsylvania as early as 1693) 
and lived
in Northern Ireland for 12 years before Duncan and Neale left for America 
in 1772.
John, archibald and Margaret (who it was thought was married to a Mr Robert 
Johnson,
a teacher, - joined them later.

Mr Johnson is said to have settled in Washingtonville where he became a 
teacher and farmer.
He had a son and two daughters of whom the younger married her cousin, 
Robert Templeton
Sinclair.

Duncan Sinclair, the weaver referred to above, served three years as a 
volunteer with General
Green in the United States army.  He married Hannah Templeton and died in 
Geneseo, N.Y.
in 1833.  He had issue:

                         Robert Templeton Sinclair born Derry, Pennsylvania 
1797

Neale Sinclair also had issue:

                         John Sinclair who lived in Milton, Pennsylvania.

Robert Templeton Sinclair went with his parents to New York in 1799 (when 
he was only 2 years
old) which was his home until his death.  He owned a homestead near 
Lakeville in Geneseo,
overlooking Conesus Lake.  He married his cousin, Margaret Johnson, on 10th 
May, 1821.  They
had the following children:

James born 1822,  married Emma Corwin in 1851.  He was a clergyman and died 
in 1882
Nancy born 1824, married (1) James Haynes in 1843 and (2) Revilo Bigelow in 
1859.
John Henry born 1826 married Fannie Corwin (presumably a sister of Emma 
Corwin) and died in
                         1883.  He was also a clergyman.
Robert Templeton (the second) born 1828 married Elizabeth Haynes 
(presumably a sister of
                         James Haynes).  He was a farmer in Geneseo - 
presumably inheriting
                         his father's homestead.
Mary born in 1830.  Died in 1849.
Elizabeth Finney born 1836.  She married a Zerah Blakely in 1855.  They 
became missionaries in
                         South Dakota.
Margaret Hannah born 1838 was a teacher in Geneseo and died there in 1866.
Edward Payson born 1841 became a resident of New York  City.

Sorry, Lynn, if these Sinclairs do not marry up with your William and 
Robert but the information
may of interest to other Sinclairs who may find a link with their own families.

Whilst on the subject of Sinclairs of Pennsylvania, we shouldn't forget 
that General Arthur St Clair
settled in the Ligonier Valley in Western Pennsylvania where he had an 
Estate of 10,881 acres of
which 8,270 acres lay in Westmoreland County.  Later he moved to Plattstown 
(also in Pennsylvania)
and  died at Chestnut Ridge, Pennsylvania on 31st August, 1818 in much 
reduced circumstances
because of the enforced sale of his vast Estate to meet debts which he 
incurred in trying to keep
Washington's army from 'melting away' . He was never reimbursed for this 
vast expenditure on
behalf of his adopted country.

He was born in Thurso, Caithness, Scotland on 23rd March , 1736 so he must 
have lived to the ripe
old age of 82 years.  He was a man of action who was equally efficient in 
civil or military matters.
The General was President for the Society of Cincinnati for Pennsylvania - 
a Society which has already
been referred to in earlier contributions to the Sinclair List and which 
may be of interest to present day
members.

Niven Sinclair

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