Clan Sinclair Society of Nova Scotia

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Clan Sinclair Society of Nova Scotia

This group is active in celebrating the 600th anniversary of Prince Henry Sinclair's visit to North American in 1398. For example, it has built an interpretative memorial to Prince Henry's Atlantic Voyage in 1398 overlooking Guysborough Harbour in Nova Scotia, thought to be Prince Henry's landfall site in Nova Scotia.

Dawn (Sinclair) Hemeon, Vice President, Clan Sinclair Society of Nova Scotia, remarks, ``We have a series of events to celebrate the 600th anniversary of this historic occasion collectively termed "Celebration 1998". We hope to tempt anyone interested in the history of this event and/or interested in visiting Nova Scotia to join on July 13th and 14th, 1998 for the festivities.''

[Prince Henry Sinclair ship memorial at Boylston Park

Malcolm, Earl of Caithness views the Ship Memorial in Guysborough, NS.
Picture supplied by Bill Sinclair, forwarded by Rob Cohn, and scanned by Kathleen Kidd.

Arcadia, Orkadians, Acadia(ns)

Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 09:43:23 -0500 (CDT)
From: Rory Sinclair

Hello all: Just had a look at the very many FAQ and have some info on many of them. Here is the first one that can be answered relatively quickly. Although very similar, in sound they in fact have very different meanings. We wouldn't confuse the terms "him" and "hymn" because we are used to them.

"Orkadian" is the name we use for someone from Orkney.

"Acadia" is the name given by the French to that area of Canada we now call Nova Scotia and parts of New Brunswick. After the defeat of the French by the British at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham 1759 and the Treaty of Paris, Acadia returned to British rule (Yes returned as it had been originally settled by Scots in the early 1600's and it was then that it acquired the name Nova Scotia) and the name Nova Scotia has been used ever since. The British were extraordinarily humane in their treatment of the French "habitants" in allowing them freedoms of custom and religion in what is now Quebec, then Lower Canada. In Acadia, there was a rather large exception. In order to make room for new settlers of British extraction, many Acadians were expelled and sent to other locales, some to the French West Indies but many to Louisiana then still a French possession. There they became known as Cajuns short for Acadians and hence the name for one of the more exciting folk music idioms on the planet. "Zydeco" is the term for a black form of Cajun music and comes from the french term for "beans" -- "les haricots" phonetically for non-french speakers this is pronounced "lays-air-ee-ko" but I digress!

"Arcadia" is a little more difficult to pin down because it is almost philosophical in concept. Arcadia is not a real place; rather it is a place that represents to us that mythological land where there was no strife or conflict either on personal or national levels; people lived in harmony with their enviroment, pursued poetry, music,love; lived in freedom and peace with neighbours without war and you get the idea. It actually is relevant to Sinclairs because as Baigeant et al. pointed out in Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, The Prieure de Sion, that murky semi-secret group that is supposed to have an unbroken chain of grand- masters all the way back to the Merovingians and the descendants of Christ and Mary Magdalene, numbered Poussin the French artist of the Baroque period as one of their grand-masters and he was into "Arcadia" in a big way. The French St. Clairs are regarded as semi-regal by Baigeant and were the guardians of the secret of the Holy Blood and for whom "Arcadia" represented the lost secrets if not also lost innocence.

I am not up on the current leadership of the the Prieure but at the time that book came out it was headed by Plantard de St. Clair.

As a philosophical concept Arcadia has had its ups and downs as intellectual fashions come and go. eg. Rousseau's concept of the "noble savage" was pure Arcadia insofar that he held that there was a time when people lived pure lives without the contamination of society and civilization. His ideas were a big part of the French Revolution and helped removed the veneer of civilization from aristocrats who had, up till then had appropriated "good" behaviour as possible only for those who had good breeding. Enough for now. Rory Sinclair

Last changed: 01/02/24 07:27:41