Thanks for your message Rick
Sinclair.
Kilmartin is at the top end of Loch Awe,
whilst Dalmally is at the other end. Lochgilphead is nearby Kilmartin. Do
you have any further information on how or where these Sinclairs got to
Argyll.
As far as i'm aware none of my Sinclairs
went to North America.
Cheers, Donald Sinclair
And a cheery hello! to you,
Donald.
Years ago, when I was trying to trace my
greatgrandfather James Richard Monro Sinclair, and even obtained the
services of a professional to this end, all I got was the name and birth
data on a "James Sinclair" in Argyllshire, by a lake. Since
other evidence available even at that time pointed to Caithness, I
felt there should be more information available, and in time, there
was.
I joined the Clan Sinclair Assn (USA) in
1978, and one of the first fruits of that investment was a letter sent to my
uncle, James Moncreiff Sinclair, from a Tennessee cousin who said that
middle name was in his family, too. The joy at finding an actual
near-relative was exceeded after Rick and I established communications, when
he send me a 5-lb package containing our great-grandfather's
autobiography and lots of other information on the family going back to
Caithness and beyond. I have since read St Clair of the Isles and
other works which discuss the Caithness, Orkney and Shetland families and
have made contact with a lady in Australia who is descended from one of the
latter group.
l
Back to the Argyll Sinclairs, I found an
article in the Highlander Magazine several years ago, which was based on
research by a group in the Loch Awe and Islands
area, which concluded that the very old
Sinclair families in that valley achieved their name from the Gaelic for
"armorer", several notable individuals of their ancestry having
been men who were skilled at making and repairing armor for the Donald
chiefs. The "Sinclair" got started when Hebridean families
were having to convert from Gaelic. Since the word for "tinsmith
(metalsmith, etc)" sounded like
"Tinckler", which was the English
pronunciation of "St Clair", who were by this time mostly using
"Sinclair" in other parts of Scotland, it was presumed that the
families in question were becoming "Sinclairs" in a perfectly
legitimate way, if not by blood. The Sinclair my geneologist came up
with was undoubtedly one of the men who left his Western sea loch and moved
down the coast to another place with an even larger lake.
I don't know how many Sinclairs have heard
this explanation, but it seems plausible enough. I know the origins of
my Sinclair tribe from early French history has enough facts going for it
that it's rarely questioned. This is all I know about the Argyll
family, however.
Ray Lower
Folsom, California (third generation on my
father's side)