Greetings, again,
I was not able to reply to Neil Sinclair's questions about my background
until today, since I had to go to my mother's house in Mitchell and
retrieve the geneology of my family produced in 1950 by two of my
ancestors, Edwin Ross and John F. Sinclair, both of California. Quote:
" The earliest information of our particular Sinclair family goes back to
about the year 1750 when a Peter Sinclair was Lodge keeper for the Duke of
Argyll at the Castle in Inverary, Argyllshire in Scotland. According to the
family records he was in charge of renting out the Duke's estates. This
position descended to his son, Donald Sinclair [note: no dates given for
DS].
This Donald Sinclair married either Mary McIntyre or Mary MacCallum -
probably the latter......Of the family of Donald Sinclair and his wife,
Mary, we have the information that a daughter Catherine and one other child
died in infancy; two sons John and Angus, a daughter and one other child
remained in Scotland; and four other children, Susan, Donald, Duncan, and
Moses emigrated to St. Andrews East, Lower Canada [now St-André-Est,
Province du Québec] in about the year 1819".
Subsequently the three brothers moved to what is now Blanshard Township
around St Marys Ontario in 1841; their sister Susan and her husband and
family moved from Québec shortly thereafter. Duncan Sinclair (1798-1883)
and his wife Jean MacCallum had twelve children, the eldest was Donald
(1835-1905). Donald married Margaret Ann McCullough in St Marys in 1865 and
had eleven children. The only one of their sons who did not move to
California in the Gold Rush of the 1890s was my grandfather, Angus Austin
Sinclair (1877-1958) who married Jessie Bell in 1908. They had one son,
Donald (1911-1995)
who married my mother, Helen Tomlinson, in 1953. They had two sons, my
brother Arthur and myself.
Now that I have possession of a copy of the geneology, I may be answer
further questions about our line...the McNokaird research hadn't seen the
light of day, as Mr Ross and Mr Sinclair told a story that the Campbells of
Argyll had invaded, and subsequently occupied Caithness at some point. When
they returned to Inverary they took Sinclairs with them and set them up in
the Duke's household staff, to the end that Peter became Lodge keeper by
1750. They had no documented proof of same; a niece of my
great-great-grandfather apparently believed that our family was descended
from Guillaume de Sancto Clairo and the Earl of Caithness, as well were
related by intermarriage with the Campbells of Argyll. As time goes on,
this seems less and less credible, if not impossible.
Happy Fourth of July, in advance, to the American members of the clan!
Cheers
Angus Sinclair