Apart from Gail (to whom I have already sent information) and John Duigud
(whose
address I am awaiting) there was someone else who wished information to have
information on the Sinclairs of Longformacus.
Some of this material has already been copied from "The St Clairs of the Isles"
but I have other information about Longformacus which will have to be typed out
because it is in such poor condition that it won't even photo-copy. When
this is
done I will forward it to interested parties.
In part reply to John Duguid the earliest overlords seem to have been the
Morthingtons
of Morthington, near Berwick.
The actual owners or inhabitants of the Manor & Peill Tower were unknown
until Sir Gregory Sinclair, the 3rd son of Sir William Sinclair of Rosslyn
appeared on the scene c.1296 when (shame on him) he swore allegiance to
King Edward I of England but, in this, he was not
alone - even Balliol swore allegiance to Edward I.
There was a Sir John Sinclair of Lochend who on 14th July, 1683 pursues a
Bailie Kelly
for oppression of the liedges in 'not permitting their own men to ship
corn'. He was
related to Sir Robert St Clair of Stevenson.
Margaret Sinclair*, who, on the death of Sir William St Clair of
Hermandston, married
Thomas Stewart, the Earl of Angus (brother to King David II) and their
daughter, another
Margaret, married the Earl of Mar and Douglas.
It was the marriage of Margaret Sinclair of Rosslyn to Sir William St Clair
of Hermandston
which brought the two principal branches of the Sinclair family together in
Scotland and
from them all the other branches emanate e.g. that of Longformacus and
Stevenson as
well as those of Caithness (17 branches), Orkney (15 branches) and Shetland
(8 branches)
and, after the loss of the Earldom of Orkney, Ravenscraig and Dysart in Fife.
The Stewarts, the Sinclairs and the Douglasses were so inextricably
interwoven with
one another that there were occasions when the 'marriages' were dissolved
on the
grounds of consanguinity i.e. too close a blood relationship. This
'inconvenience' was
invariably overcome by paying the Holy Mother Church a sum of money to
allow the
children to be legitimatised. The Bruces and the Sinclairs were also
interlinked long
before either family left Normandy for England and Scotland. The first
recorded link
was when Agnes St Clair married Philip who was the grandson and heir of
Lord Bruis
of Brix in Normandy. The name Bruce, like that of Sinclair, has been
variously written
e.g. Bruce, Bruis, Brusi, Breous.
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