Dear John:
You question is indeed the nub of the issues surrounding the Argyll
Sinclairs. On the one hand, the name is so clearly the same as that of the
Caithness-Rosslyn Family but on the other hand, there appears to be no
direct connection that is currently traceable such as that say of the
MacDonalds of the Isles and MacDonnell of Glengarry where there was a direct
off-shoot of the former to the latter. What appears to have happened is
that the Argyll Sinclairs arrived there approximately congruent in time with
the Highland Clearances and Industrial Revolution (which among other things
caused an enormous upheaval in 'residency' of so many Scots) that affected
all Clans and indeed the whole population of Scotland. That is why, for
example, you will find Campbells in Sutherland and everywhere else for that
matter and not just their ancestral home in Argyll. Pick any Clan name and
Scottish County name for the above sentence and you will be essentially
correct.
In our case, the puzzle is that there is more than just a few scattered
families with the Sinclair name in Argyll. Indeed, it appears to be a solid
family group. That they were also working class or agricultural labourers
does not help in tracing their origins as regular folk were not kept track
of the same way aristocrats were.
If I were a betting man, I would bet that the Sinclairs of Argyll indeed are
descended from the Rosslyn-Caithness Sinclairs but that the proof of that is
going to be some time in coming. Brother Clansman, Neil Sinclair of Toronto
has prepared a paper on the Argyll Sinclairs and I am indebted to him for
some of the above information. His paper will be published in the
newsletter of the The Clan Sinclair Association (Canada) "Rosslyn O'
Rosslyn" in the near future.
Hope this is helpful. Yours Aye, Rory.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Duguid <john.duguid@snl.co.uk>
To: sinc <"sinclair@zilker.net"@"sinclair@zilker.net".snl.co.uk>
Date: Monday, May 10, 1999 9:59 AM
Subject: Sinclairs by mistake?
>
> Alexander Sinclairs book states
>
>> The Gaelic form of the name Sinclair is Singlear. The Sinclairs of
>>Argyleshire call themselves Clann-na-Cearda or the Children of the craft
or
>>trade. It is probable that the name was given them by their neighbours
>would
>naturally take for gratned that Singlear meant shingler or >flax-dresser.
The
>Sinclairs of Argyll are out-and -out Highlanders. >
>
>Forgive me for being obtuse but does this mean that argyle Sinclairs may
have
>no real clain to be descended from the Norman/Scandiavian Sinclairs?
>
>Yours Aye
>
>john
>
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