Alexander Sinclair of Stempster

ALEXANDER SINCLAIR OF STEMSTER AND DUNBEATH

According to Roland William Saint-Clair, Alexander Sinclair of Stemster and Dunbeath, was the son of William, Earl of Caithness, and his wife Mary Keith. He is said to have married Elizabeth Innes. Saint-Clairs: 220

Children

1. William Sinclair of Dunbeath
2. Oliver Sinclair
3. Isabel Sinclair
4. Helen Sinclair of Stempster

Other Children

According to Francis J. Grant, Alexander Sinclair of Stemster and Dunbeath, here treated, was also the father of Elizabeth Sinclair the wife of William Sinclair of Houss. Grant does not identify him more explicitly, and presently it is not possible to say which Alexander Sinclair was the father of Elizabeth Sinclair. The name of her mother is not mentioned. Shetland Families

Evidence from the National Records of Scotland

                   1

18 July 1527: Charter under the Great Seal of Scotland made in favour of John Sinclair, Earl of Caithness, which mentions Alexander Sinclair, brother of the Earl. RMS: 476

                   2

2 November 1529: Charter by which James V, King of Scots, with the consent of the treaurer, confirms that Alexander Sinclair of Stamster and his wife Elizabeth Innes have possession of the lands of Dunbeith, Raa and Sandside in the Sheriffdom of Inverness, which lands the King, in recognition of Alexander Sinclair of Stamster's good service, incorporated as the free barony of Dunbeith. This land had previously been resigned in their favour by Alexander Innes, son and heir of Alexander Innes of that Ilk, who reserved his own liferent. The land was to be held by Alexander Sinclair of Stempster and his wide Elizabeth Innes in conjunct fee and liferent, and by their legitimate heirs, whom failing it was to return to the heirs of Alexander Innes whomever. RMS: 860

                   3

11 January 1529-30: Charter by which James V, King of Scots, with the consent of the treaurer, confirms that Alexander Sinclair of Stamster and his wife Elizabeth Innes have possession of the lands of Dunbeith, Raa and Sandside in the Sheriffdom of Inverness, which lands the King, in recognition of Alexander Sinclair of Stamster's good service, incorporated as the free barony of Dunbeith. This land had previously been resigned in their favour by Alexander Innes, son and heir of Alexander Innes of that Ilk, who reserved his own liferent. The land was to be held by Alexander Sinclair of Stempster and his wide Elizabeth Innes in conjunct fee and liferent, and by their legitimate heirs, whom failing it was to return to the heirs of Alexander Innes whomever. RMS: 891

Note: This charter is a duplicate of number 860.

Secondary Source Evidence

Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum : The Register of the Great seal of Scotland, A.D. 1513-1546. Edited by James Balfour Paul, FSA. Scot., and John Maitland Thomson, MA., Advocates. (HM.M. General Register House, Edinburgh, 1883), 1067 pp. including index and Errata

Genealogy

1. The Saint-Clairs of the Isles; being a history of the sea-kings of Orkney and their Scottish successors of the sirname of Sinclair. Arranged and Annotated by Roland William Saint-Clair. (h. Brett, Auckland, New Zealand, 1898), 558 pp.
2. Stirnet: Sinclair 14

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Donald Mackay, who died towards the close of 1550, married Helen, daughter of Alexander Sinclair of Stempster, [ In the reign of King James V., Alexander Sinclair of Stempster had a charter under the Great Seal, dated 2nd November 1529, as follows:—" Alexandro Sinclair de Stamster et Elizabeth Innis, suae sponsae, terrarum de Dunbeath, Rae, et Sandside, in Baronian Dunbeth." Reg. Mag. Siff. and Blk. MS.] second son of William, Earl of Caithness.

Family

I. ALEXANDER SINCLAIR, son of William, second Earl of Caithness, and Elizabeth Innes, his wife. This lady was no doubt of the family of Innes of Innes, and it is probable that through her marriage to Alexander Sinclair these estates came for the first time into the Sinclair family. In 1507 Alexander Sinclair had obtained a Crown charter of Stemster, and thus he appears to have been the first Sinclair of Stemster and Dunbeath. The Crown charter in 1529 contains the following clause of some antiquarian interest—"cum mulierum merchetis cum furca, fossa, sok, sak, thole, thieme, infangtheif, outfangtheif, pit, et gallous.” Various explanations of the “mercheta mulierum” have been given, some of them sufficiently barbarous, but according to Hailes it really seems to have been the right of levying a fine from a serf or villain, on the marriage of his daughter. About 1657 the lands of Inverse of Dunbeath were erected into a burgh of barony, to be called the burgh of Magnusburgh.

Alexander Sinclair had two sons and a daughter:--

• 1. William.
• 2. Oliver, no doubt so named after his grand-uncle, Sir Oliver of Roslyn. He is frequently mentioned as the “brother-german" of William; and in a curious document given in the “Account of the Family of Innes,” entitled “The Maister of Elphinstoun's Letter,” he occurs as “Oliephare Syncklare, brother to William Syncklare of Dunbeytht. In the “Topography of Scotland,” by John Harding, between 1437 and 1460, there is reference to the “Castel of Dunbeke" as northof the “ Water of Suthyrland.”
• 1. Isabel, daughter of Alexander Sinclair, married Gilbert Gordon of Garty, uncle to John, fifth Earl of Sutherland. She has attained an unenviable notoriety as a murderer, by poison, of the Earl and his lady in 1567, for the purpose of opening the way for her own son's succession to the earldom.

Alexander Sinclair seems to have died before 1541. His widow, Elizabeth Innes, appears also to have been dead about 1557, seeing that her son, William, then got a grant of the non-entry dues of Dunbeath and the barony, of which lands his father and mother had been joint fiars.

References

• Caithness Family History. By John Henderson. Page 15-16. < GoogleBooks >. Helen Sinclair is not listed as a child of Alexander Sinclair. Page 245. < GoogleBooks >
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sinclair-185 cites
• Register of the Great Seal of Scotland: Vol 3 p188 No860