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Dear Donald,
Following the death of Prince Henry
St.Clair/Sinclair's grandson William 11th Baron of Rosslyn, the holdings of the
family were divided between his 3 sons: William the Waster by his first
wife, Oliver and William by his second wife. William the Waster
received little but was given a little more later by Oliver. Oliver
inherited most of the lands including the Baronial title to Rosslyn and it is
from this line from which Earl Peter St. Clair Erskine descends and legally
holds the Earldom there. The second William received the Earldom of
Caithness and it is from him that Earl Malcolm Caithness descends.
If you go to www.clansinclairusa.org/4_index_templar_years.htm this
will be explained. If you take then the link of Oliver and the Baron of
Rosslyn you will see how this line descends to Earl Peter. You will see
that there is yet much information to gather to complete this chart. If you
take William, Earl of Caithness you will follow the line down to Malcolm
Caithness. The link at the bottom to the "Templar Years" will take
you backwards to William 11th Baron (last entry on this chart) and all of his
ancestors. "Crusader Years" takes you back through another section of
ancestors. "Normandy Years" then "Norse Years" completes our knowlege
of our ancestry.
Laurel
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2000 1:50 PM
Subject: Re: Rosslyn Chapel
At 11:23 07/05/00 -0400, you wrote:
Hi Donald:
In my Canadian persona, I
am a bit of a leftie. Put that beside my deep interest in and respect
for our titled Clansmen or as you put it "the trappings of the the old world
[which will] be pushed aside" and you will have what might be perceived as a
contradiction.
Not at all I hasten to add. My respect for my Chief
and for Peter St. Clair Erskine (The Earl of Rosslyn's real name) and for
John Sinclair, Viscount Thurso stems in the first place from having met them
and found them engaging and interested in what we are interested in as, for
example, members of this list. In addition, they members of our Clan
AND, are living representatives of our history and heritage and I for
one take great pleasure in knowing that when I speak to Malcolm Caithness I
am speaking to a direct descendant of Prince Henry Sinclair. It may
also be true that I (or you) are also direct descendants of Prince Henry but
we cannot speak of ourselves with that way with the certainty that Malcolm
can. Call me crazy, but I like that.
As for the notion that Peter
Rosslyn somehow is an "illegitimate" owner of Rosslyn Chapel at the expense
of the world-wide Clan Sinclair I must confess that I am not a subsciber of
such views. Peter Rosslyn's ancestors inherited the Chapel and Castle
through totally legal means and if we still believe in the idea of private
property (the socialist dream of all property being held in common not yet
having arrived) then his ownership need not be questioned anymore than my
daughter's ownership of my house should be questioned when she inherits it
on my death.
Now, as to your nascent idea that the Clan can come
up with some kind of monstrous some of cash in order to make some kind of
offer that the Earl "cannot refuse" .... well, my opinion is that it
just ain't gonna happen.
My view is that the Earl has made an enormous
gift of the Chapel to the Rosslyn Chapel Trust on a 99 year lease which
means effectively that neither he, nor his children nor his children's
children will ever "own" the Chapel in the sense that you and I mean
own. My view is that we would do well to support the RCT in its very
long-term plan to see to it that the physical fabric of the building is
preserved and protected for future generations. The Trust is regularly
audited by the Scottish Government and all plans for the preservation of the
building are monitored by Historic Scotland. I think the Chapel is
being extraordinarily well-attended to and any great sums of cash that the
Clan could raise should go directly to this enterprise and not to
satisfyng some idea of "Clan ownership. Indeed, I have no problem in
declaring that the present owner is all of: Peter Rosslyn, The RCT, the
people of Scotland as represented by Historic Scotland and the Sinclair
diaspora ie. US!
These are my views and not the official views of anyone
else.
Curious as to your views on my views.
Love your spunky
contributions to the list.
Aye,
Rory
-----Original Message-----
From: Donald H Sinclair
<horace@mb.sympatico.ca>
To:
Sinclair Discusion List <sinclair@matrix.net>
Date:
Friday, May 05, 2000 7:07 PM
Subject: Rosslyn
Chapel
Dear Rory:
Good common sense letter! I believe the difficulties
involved and influential pressures needed are well understood. This
project will take a long time and require a great deal of goodwill with
much political lobbying. If the Sinclair Clan worldwide can get
their act together (many thousands are not computer literate yet), and
recruit a trusted core of people to raise a great deal of money required
to reclaim Sinclair assets. Sinclairs may be a little crusty and
cantankerous, but treated with respect and convinced of a "Sinclair
Cause," they will respond from their pockets. In looking at
Rosslyn's Page, it looks like the Chapel Association is doing a good job
of maintaining our Sinclair Church. Do you know what The Earl of
Rosslyn's real name is? When all the trappings of the old world are
pushed aside, or how he acquired the paper title to the Sinclair Rosslyn
Chapel?
Donald H.
Sinclair
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