HENRY SINCLAIR Earl of Orkney

• HENRY ST. CLAIR, on the death of Malise, Earl of Stratherne, Orkney, and Caithness, before 1358, became one of the competitors for the earldom of Orkney through his mother, Isabella, daughter of the said Malise, the other competitors being his cousins, Alexander del Ard and Malise Sperra, Lord of Skaldale. The Scots Peerage VI: 568-70

Known for a spurious legend of him discovering North America 100 years before Christopher Columbus.

Biographical Accounts

Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, Baron of Roslin (c. 1345 – c. 1400), was a Scottish nobleman. He is sometimes identified by another spelling of his surname, St. Clair. He was the grandfather of William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, the builder of Rosslyn Chapel.

He is best known today because of a modern legend that he took part in explorations of Greenland and North America almost 100 years before Christopher Columbus. William Thomson, in his History of Orkney, wrote: "it has been Earl Henry's singular fate to enjoy an ever-expanding posthumous reputation which has very little to do with anything he achieved in his lifetime."

Wikioedia

• Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl of Orkney1
• M, #109241, d. 1404
• Last Edited=11 Mar 2014
• Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl of Orkney was the son of Sir William Sinclair of Roslin and Isabel (?).2 He married Jane Halyburton, daughter of Sir William Halyburton of Dirletoun.3 He died in 1404, killed in an attack on Orkney, possibly by English seaman.3
• He was created 1st Earl of Orkney [Scotland] on 2 August 1379, in Marstrand, Norway.1
• Child of Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl of Orkney
  • 1.Margaret Sinclair+2
• Children of Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl of Orkney and Jane Halyburton
  • 1.Jean Sinclair+4
  • 2.Henry Sinclair, 2nd Earl of Orkney+5 d. c 1 Feb 1420/21
  • 3.Beatrice Sinclair+3
  • 4.Elizabeth Sinclair+6 b. 1363
• Citations
• 1.[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume IV, page 435. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• 2.[S37] See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]
• 3.[S37] See. [S37]
• 4.[S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume VIII, page 591.
• 5.[S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume X, page 95.
• 6.[S1224] Derek Hughes, "re: 1st Lord Drummond," e-mail message to Darryl Lundy, 22 December 2004, 13 February 2005 and 2 March 2005. Hereinafter cited as "re: 1st Lord Drummond."
• From: http://thepeerage.com/p10925.htm#i109241

                   3

*Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl Orkney, Lord Shetland1

• M, #3838, d. 1404
• Father Sir William Sinclair b. b 1330, d. c 1358
• Mother Isobella of Strathearn
• Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl Orkney, Lord Shetland married Jean Haliburton, daughter of Sir John Haliburton and Margaret Cameron. Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl Orkney, Lord Shetland died in 1404 at Orkney, Scotland.
• Family Jean Haliburton
• Children
  • Jean Sinclair+
  • Mary Sinclair2 d. b 2 Nov 1411
  • Helen Sinclair+3
  • Marjory Sinclair+4
  • Sir Henry Sinclair, 2nd Earl Orkney+ b. c 1375, d. b 29 Apr 1418
• Citations
• 1.[S553] Unknown author, Journal of Ancient and Medieval Studies.
• 2.[S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/1, p. 92, notes.
• 3.[S11620] The Douglas Archives.
• 4.[S11649] Clan MacFarlane & Associated Clans Genealogy.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p128.htm#i...

                   4

Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, Baron of Roslin (c. 1345 – c. 1400) was a Scottish and a Norwegian nobleman. Sinclair held the title Earl of Orkney under the King of Norway (see Earl of Orkney: Scottish Earls under the Norwegian Crown). He is sometimes identified by another spelling of his surname, St. Clair. He was the grandfather of William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, the builder of Rosslyn Chapel. He is best known today because of a modern legend that he took part in explorations of Greenland and North America almost 100 years before Christopher Columbus. William Thomson, in his book The New History of Orkney,[1] wrote: "It has been Earl Henry's singular fate to enjoy an ever-expanding posthumous reputation which has very little to do with anything he achieved in his lifetime."[2]

Henry Sinclair was the son and heir of William Sinclair, Lord of Roslin, and his wife Isabella (Isobel) of Strathearn.[3] She was a daughter of Maol Ísa, Earl of Orkney. Henry Sinclair's maternal grandfather had been deprived of much of his lands (the earldom of Strathearn being completely lost to the King of Scots).[4]

Sometime after 13 September 1358, Henry's father died, at which point Henry Sinclair succeeded as Baron of Roslin, Pentland and Cousland, a group of minor properties in Lothian.

Three cousins – Alexander de L'Arde, Lord of Caithness; Malise Sparre, Lord of Skaldale; and Henry Sinclair – were rivals for the succession to the earldom of Orkney. On 2 August 1379, at Marstrand, near Tønsberg, Norway, King Haakon VI of Norway invested and confirmed Sinclair as the Norwegian Earl of Orkney over a rival claim by his cousin Malise Sparre.[3] In return Henry pledged to pay a fee of 1000 nobles before St. Martin's Day (11 November), and, when called upon, serve the king on Orkney or elsewhere with 100 fully armed men for 3 months. As security for upholding the agreement the new earl left hostages behind when he departed Norway for Orkney. It is unknown if Haakon VI ever attempted to call upon the troops pledged by Henry or if any of the fee was actually paid. Shortly before his death summer 1380 the king permitted the hostages to return home.[5]

In 1389, Sinclair attended the coronation of King Eric of Pomerania in Norway, pledging his oath of fealty. Historians have speculated that in 1391 Sinclair and his troops slew Malise Sparre near Scalloway, Tingwall parish, Shetland.

It is not known when Henry Sinclair died. The Sinclair Diploma, written or at least commissioned by his grandson states: "...he retirit to the parts of Orchadie and josit them to the latter tyme of his life, and deit Erile of Orchadie, and for the defence of the country was slain there cruellie by his enemiis..." We also know that sometime in 1401: "The English invaded, burnt and spoiled certain islands of Orkney." This was part of an English retaliation for a Scottish attack on an English fleet near Aberdeen. The assumption is that Henry either died opposing this invasion, or was already dead.[6]

The Sinclair Diploma states he married Joneta (or Joan, or Jean) Haliburton, daughter of Sir Walter de Haliburton, 1st Lord Haliburton of Dirleton, and had issue:

• Henry II Sinclair, Earl of Orkney
• John Sinclair, baillie of Shetland
• William Sinclair of Dryden
• Elizabeth Sinclair, married Sir John Drummond of Cargill
• Margaret Sinclair, married James Cragy of Hupe

The alleged voyage to North America

Almost nothing more is known about Sinclair's life. However, much has been written through conjecture about his supposed career as an explorer. In 1784, he was identified by Johann Reinhold Forster as possibly being the Prince Zichmni described in letters allegedly written around the year 1400 by the Zeno brothers of Venice, in which they describe a voyage throughout the North Atlantic under the command of Zichmni.[4]

The authenticity of the letters (which were allegedly rediscovered and published in the early 16th century), the exact course of the voyage, as well as whether it even took place, are challenged by historians. Most regard the letters (and the accompanying map) as a hoax by the Zenos, their publishers. Moreover, the identification of Zichmni as Henry Sinclair is not taken seriously by historians, although it is taken for granted by the supporters of the theory.

Supporters of the theory contend that there are stone carvings of American plants in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.[5] The Chapel was built by Henry Sinclair's grandson William Sinclair and was completed in 1486. Columbus made his first voyage in 1492. This is seen by writers Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas as being compelling evidence for the theory that Sinclair had sailed to America,[5] although scholars have said the plants are simply stylised depictions of common European plants.[6]

The claim that Henry Sinclair explored North America is based on several separate propositions:

1. That the letters and map ascribed to the Zeno brothers and published in 1558 are authentic.
2. That the voyage described in the letters as taken by Zichmni around the year 1398 to Greenland actually reached North America.
3. That Zichmni is Henry Sinclair.

Also, Native American historian Evan Pritchard said he believes Sinclair established a settlement in the 14th century in Canada's Nova Scotia among the Micmac and that Sinclair is represented in about 20 Micmac folk stories as Glooscap, a prominent Micmac folkloric hero. Pritchard's comments were part of Holy Grail in America, a television documentary about the Kensington Runestone first broadcast on the History Channel on 20 September 2009.[7][8]

Alleged Templar connections

Intertwined with the Sinclair voyage story is the claim that Henry Sinclair was a Knight Templar and that the voyage either was sponsored by or conducted on the behalf of the Templars, though the order was suppressed almost a century before Henry's lifetime.[9]

Knight and Lomas speculate that the Knights Templar discovered under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem a royal archive dating from King Solomon's times that stated that Phoenicians from Tyre voyaged to a westerly continent following a star called "La Merika". According to Knight and Lomas, the Templars learned that to sail to that continent, they had to follow a star by the same name, which became the origin of the name "America". Sinclair supposedly followed this route.[10]

The theory also makes use of the supposed Templar connection to explain the name Nova Scotia ("New Scotland" in Latin). It is based on the 18th century tale that some Templars escaped the suppression of their order by fleeing to Scotland during the reign of Robert the Bruce[11] and fought in the Battle of Bannockburn.[12]

Claims persist that Rosslyn Chapel contains Templar imagery. Andrew Sinclair speculates that the grave slab now in the crypt is that of a Templar knight[13]: According to author Robert Lomas, the chapel also has an engraving depicting a knight templar holding the sword over a head of an initiate, supposedly to protect the secrets of the templars.[14] Rosslyn Chapel was built by Sir William St Clair, last St Clair Earl of Orkney, who was the grandson of Henry. According to Lomas, Sir William, the chapel builder, is also the direct ancestor of the first Grand Master of Masons of Scotland, also named William St Clair (Sinclair).[14]

According to Lomas, the Sinclairs and their French relatives the St. Clairs were instrumental in creating the Knights Templar. He claims that the founder of Templars Hugh de Payns was married to a sister of the Duke of Champaine (Henri de St. Clair), [15] who was a powerful broker of the first Crusade and had the political power to nominate the Pope, and to suggest the idea and empower it to the Pope.

However, a biography of Hugues de Payen by Thierry Leroy [16] identifies his wife and the mother of his children as Elizabeth de Chappes. The book draws its information on the marriage from local church cartularies dealing chiefly with the disposition of the Grand Master's properties, the earliest alluding to Elizabeth as his wife in 1113, and others spanning Payen's lifetime, the period following his death and lastly her own death in 1170.

Criticisms of this theory

One primary criticism of this theory is that if either a Sinclair or a Templar voyage reached the Americas, they did not, unlike Columbus, return with a historical record of their findings. In fact, there is no known published documentation from that era to support the theory that such a voyage took place. The physical evidence relies on speculative reasoning to support the theory, and all of it can be interpreted in other ways. For example, according to one historian, the carvings in Rosslyn Chapel may not be of American plants at all but are nothing more than stylized carvings of wheat and strawberries.[6]

Historians Mark Oxbrow, Ian Robertson,[17] Karen Ralls and Louise Yeoman[18] have each made it clear that the Sinclair family had no connection with the mediaeval Knights Templar. Karen Ralls has shown that among those testifying against the Templars at their 1309 trial were Henry and William Sinclair - an act inconsistent with any alleged support or membership.[19][20] This leaves the ties to the Knights Templars still in question.

Alternative histories

In the 1980s, modern alternative histories of Earl Henry I Sinclair and Rosslyn Chapel began to be published. Popular books (often derided as pseudo-history) such as The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln (1982) and The Temple and the Lodge by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh (1989) appeared. Books by Timothy Wallace-Murphy and Andrew Sinclair soon followed from the early 1990s onwards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_I_Sinclair,_Earl_of_Orkney

ID: I26473 Name: Henry Sinclair Sex: M Birth: BEF 1347 in 1st Earl of Orkney Death: 1404 Reference Number: 26473 Note: Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl of Orkney was born before 1347. He was the son of Sir William Sinclair of Roslin and Isabel.2 He married Jane Halyburton, daughter of Sir William Halyburton of Dirletoun.3 He died in 1404, killed in an attack on Orkney, possibly by English seaman.3 Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl of Orkney was created 1st Earl of Orkney [Scotland] on 2 August 1379, in Marstrand, Norway.1

Family 1 Jane Halyburton Children Elizabeth Sinclair+ b. 13634 Henry Sinclair, 2nd Earl of Orkney+ b. b 1384, d. c 1 Feb 1420/215

Family 2 Child Beatrice Sinclair+ b. b 14006

Citations [S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume IV, page 435. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage. [S37] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003). Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition. [S37] Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 1, page 642. [S1224] Derek Hughes, "re: 1st Lord Drummond," e-mail message from <e-mail address> (unknown address) to Darryl Lundy, 22 December 2004, 13 February 2005 and 2 March 2005. Hereinafter cited as "re: 1st Lord Drummond". [S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume X, page 95. [S37] Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 1, page 438.

Very intriguing article: Which modern day people are descended from the vikings?

History: Vikings settled in French Normandy (French word roughly meaning Norse). They occupied parts of the British Isles (northern Scotland Shetland, Orkney, Isle of Man, Northumbria) and to a lesser degree in Ireland (around Dublin). Until 1471, the Shetland and Orkney islands, along with Caithness until 1476, were part of the king of Norway’s feudal lands. They were ceded to the Scottish king when an unpaid dowry resulted in the forfeiture of this Earldom to Scotland.

DESCENDANTS OF THE VIKINGS

Some historians believe that he reached Nova Scotia by 1400. Most historians reject this idea but how can one explain extant tombstones bearing Templar crosses in remote parts of Nova Scotia dating to the 15th century? Henry Sinclair was a well known sea captain who possessed a fleet of ships and he certainly knew about Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, as they were Norse settlements subject to his liege lord, the King of Norway. Henry is reported dead by 1400 but his body was never buried. He was presumed lost at sea? The romantic in me, along with a willingness to consider all opinions, prevents me from dismissing the unusual. I have seen reliable photographs, taken by a professional surveyor friend, of pre-Columbian European evidence from Nova Scotia. This information remains unpublished. My facebook page has a photograph of one of the headstone. I spent 5 years researching the image caduceus and the only comparable image I found was in an obscure book on the Armenian Orthodox Church—single snake winding around a cross. The image has both a traditional interpretation and an esoteric one. The entire date wasn’t visible in a photo reproduction but the second half, the death date, indicated the year ‘14- -.’ Henry Sinclair’s son William began construction of Rosslyn Chapel on 20 September 1456 with permission to build a chapel granted in 1446. Rosslyn has so much esoteric imagery that it’s impossible to briefly describe. The St. Clair (or Sinclair) family has owned its Rosslyn lands since 1290. Eupedia .com has many excellent maps on genetic and languages,.......

Source: Which modern day people are descended from the vikings? - Quora https://www.quora.com/Which-modern-day-people-are-descended-from-th...

Added by Janet Milburn, Sinclair descendant 4/25/2018

http://www.orkneyjar.com/.../henrysinclair/history.htm

b.01 s.341
Sammendrag:
Henrik Sinclair (de sancto Claro), Jarl af Orknö, udsteder Gjældsbrev til
Haakon Jonssön for 200 Gylden, som han forpligter sig at betale til næste
Aar i 2 Terminer.
Kilde:
Efter et Transskript i Dipl. Arn. Magn. fasc. 100. No. 9. b. af 9 Septbr.
1380, nedenfor No. 465.
Nummer: 458.

Dato: 2 August 1379. Sted: Marstrand.

Brevtekst (fra den trykte utgaven):

Pateat vniuersis per presentes nos Henricum de sancto Claro
comitem Orchadensem teneri et firmiter obligari Haquino Jons/son/son. jn
ducentis nobilibus auri boni soluendis prefato Haquino vel eius certo
attornato presentes literas secum differenti vnacum literis acquietanci
dicti Haquini super dicti auri summa apud Kyrwawe infra Orchadiam
infra equales porcionem centum videlicet nobiles ad festum pentichostes
proximum futurum et centum nobiles ad festum sancti Martini episcopi
et confessoris proximum inde sequens. Et si contingat nos in solu-
cione dictorum ducentorum nobilium prout premittitur facienda deficere
quod absit obligamus heredes nostros et exequtores ad dictam auri
summam plenarie et fideliter proimplendam predicto Haquino vel eius
sicut prefertur deputato sine aliquo dolo seu fraude. Jn cuius rei
testimonium sigillum nostrum presentibus est appensum. Scriptum aput
Mastrandis secundo die mensis Augusti anno domini millesimo ccco
septuagesimo nono.
https://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/middelalder/diplom_vise_tekst.prl?b=...