At 01:15 10/05/99 +0100, you wrote:
>
>In message <2373c94.36f6ccd2@aol.com>, Plumpett@aol.com writes
>>
>>I have read recently that a Sinclair built the first Baptist Church in
>>northern Scotland !
>>
>>Since the first article on this site that raised the Baptist question
>>occurred several days later , I didn't note the specific details for later
>>reference.
>>
>>To address the inquiry that first raised this issue , it would seem
consistent
>>with this finding that a specific religious affiliation could provide a
>>valuable clue in finding roots in a family line .
>>
>>I would confirm other list member's comments that the religious affiliations
>>were often fluid in this country . My own Sinclair line in the USA was first
>>found to be
>>Methodist- Episcopal , then Episcopal .
>>
>>A daughter then married into a line with Quaker , Baptist and Presbyterian
>>member !
>>
>>Joe Greigg
>>
>>[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@jump.net.
>>[ To get off or on the list, see http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html
>
>It is very difficult to reply from a Scottish perspective I am not sure
>what you mean by fluid - the major change came at the REFORMATION - when
>the forces of protestantism came to be dominant in Britain as a whole
>and Henry the Eighth renounced his catholic faith and became head of the
>Church of England. Now, there were splits within the Protestant
>teaching and from that came such groupf as the Baptists, the
>Congregationalists ets.
>I've learnt in the time of being part of the Sinclair network that
>direct. existing contacts with people in Scotland are of comparatively
>little interest. I can understand this since we are so remote and
>possibly so few in number and our more dirsct links with the past
>history of the Sinclairs and with present possible family links in the
>States and canada etc. are difficult to establish.
>Anyway I think I'll ubsubscribe for now since most folks find Scotland
>and its denizens just a tad remote.
>
>--
>Jean Haddow
>[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@jump.net.
>[ To get off or on the list, see http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html
>
I'm amazed. With the internet few places in the World are remote today -
certainly not those in Scotland who have always had an affinity with their
cousins in the United States and Canada. Most Scots have more relatives in
the New World than they have in their own
country.
There have been Sinclair Bishops of Orkney, Caithness, Dunkeld, Brechin and
Glasgow.
There have been Sinclairs of almost every denomination - even Jewish.
Dr Hugh Macdonald Sinclair, the eminent nutritionist, who, during the war,
was
Churchill's adviser on the nation's diet, once told me that his Godfather,
the Earl of Dysart,
claimed that the Sinclairs were 'the lost tribe of Israel'. Whilst this is
certainly open to challenge, we have some distinguished Jewish Sinclairs,
notably: Rabbi Yaacov Sinclair
in the U.S.A. and Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sinclair who was a former Minister of
the Edinburgh
Synagogue but has recently been appointed to the prestigious post of
Principal of Jews's College, London. He, with Dr Hugh Macdonald Sinclair,
will feature in my series on notable Sinclairs. Both of these men have
'international staus' in their respective fields whilst still
being intensely proud of their Sinclair roots.
Niven Sinclair
[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@jump.net.
[ To get off or on the list, see http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html