Re: Clan Memberships

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

At 00:10 03/05/00 +1000, you wrote:
> Hello Scottie,
>
> Welcome to the Sinclair list!  Where do you hail from?  That's
> very true you know - a clan is not an incorporated body - I don't rightly
> recall anyone saying it was!  BUT a Clan Association generally is an
> incorporated body, and I believe there was mention of Clan Associations
> rather than Clans per se.  And it's great to hear your world is
> about being alive! :)  Hopefully everyone's is!
>
> Regards
> Margaret :)
>
> At 11:16 PM 2/05/00, you wrote:
> >  
> > I don't know about other people but I'm not motley.  I
> > am a Clansman.  I support my Chief.  A Clan is not a legal
> > incorporated body.  It IS a family.  As far as I'm concerned,
> > I'm related to every Sinclair there is!  Your world may be about
> > bits of paper, mine's about being ALIVE! 
> >  
> > -Scottie


Scottie,

I'm glad you are "alive" otherwise you e-mail might have
suggested a message from
the other side.

Alas, so many people are dead but don't know it or have committed partial
suicide by
failing to realise and, thereby, release the true talents which lie
within each and everyone

of us.

Yes, a Clan is a family (it actually means a family in Gaelic) and we are luckier than most in
having a family which spans the World and which has a lineage which we can be traced back
for over a thousand years. 

Indeed, in a letter written by Henry, Lord Sinclair from Shetland to King John of Denmark on
12th July, 1507 he takes us back even further because he wrote:

                        "....even in relation to the Earldom of Orkney and Hietland
                        (Shetland) which lands for certain services to be done to the
                        Kings of Norway were alienated heritably to my progenitors
                        even before the birth of Christ"

The House of Odin was eventually heired by the Sinclairs through two of the sons of
Rogenwald, the premier 'jarl' of Norway.

Through Hrolf 'the Ganger'  (known universally as Rollo) we gain our Norman descent
and our name of St Clair because the Treaty which he signed with Charles 'the Simple'
of France was signed at Castle St Clair-sur-Epte.

Through his younger brother, Einar, who became the 'jarl' of Orkney, we gain our Norse
descent because the descendants of these two brothers, Sir William St Clair of Rosslyn
and Isabel, the daughter of Malise II of Orkney, married and gave birth to a son who
inherited his Orcadian 'jarldom' through his mother and his Scottish Estates through
his father.

This man was Prince Henry Sinclair who made a momentous voyage to the New World
in 1398 - almost 100 years before Columbus.

 Most of you already know this but it deserves to be repeated again and again until
this PrInce of Men eventually gets his rightful place in history.
                        
Scottie, please join me and other Sinclairs in this great Crusade.  It doesn't matter  if
we belong to a Clan Society, a Clan Association or a Clan Trust - they key factor is to
belong, to participate, to be alive (as you say) and in spreading the word to the younger
generation so that they, too, might be proud to bear the name of Sinclair (and the
responsibilities and duties which go with it).

Leave the semantics to other people.

Niven Sinclair