The Sinclairs of Essex

[Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>]

In an earlier e-mail, I wrote about the Sinclairs who were buried in the 
Chapel at Danbury
in Essex.  During my visit I found effigies of no fewer than FOUR Sir 
William St Cleres
buried there.

  The effigies of the knights showed them with their legs crossed and with 
their feet resting on  dogs.  Most of them had taken part in the crusades - 
thereby suggesting a Templar link.

One of the knights had been 'pickled' and had remained in 'perfect 
condition' until a workman
on the 16th October, 1779 put his pick through the leaded coffin which was 
found to be half
full of a fluid on which floated 'feathers, flowers and herbs'.  The body 
was clothed in a fine
white linen shroud with a piece of lace sewn across the chest.  He had a 
full set of gleaming
white teeth.

It is believed that this type of 'embalming' was brought back to this 
country by the Crusaders.  Waltheof, the second son of Simon de Senlis* who 
had accompanied
Henri de St Clair to the Holy Land on the 1st Crusade, was similarily embalmed.
He had been made the second abbot of the Cistercian Abbey of Melrose in 1148
and remained there for the rest of his life.    His body remained in an 
'incorrupt' state
until it was removed to Glasgow in 1171 to be housed in a new marble tomb where
it began to disintegrate.

Those of you who have read my article on Eynhallow, the Holy Island of 
Orkney, will
know that Abbot Laurence (who, before being admitted to the Cistercian 
Order was
Henry Sinclair of Rye) was translated from the Cistercian Church on 
Eynhallow to
become Abbot of Melrose in 1175.

The Sinclairs (St Clairs) and the Senlis (St Lys) families are all of one 
stock and, in
1392 when Prince Henry Sinclair travelled to London, there can be little 
doubt that he
would have stayed with his Sinclair relatives in Northampton Castle and, 
perhaps, find
time to pray in the round church built by Simon de Senlis - a round church 
which was
was modelled on the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and which 
Henry Sinclair
copied when he and his men built Newport Tower in Rhode Island.  The 
octagon within
the circle - sacred Holy architecture which was to become the hallmark of 
the Templars.

Niven Sinclair


The Senlis (St Lys) family held the Earldoms of Huntingdon and 
Northampton.  Simon
de Senlis was responsible for building the round church at Northampton 
whilst the
St Clairs built Northampton castle. St John's Hospital, also in 
Northampton, was founded
by William Sancte Clere who was archdeacon there.

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