From a tradition current in the descendants of this family.

[224] Hogg's Jacobite Relics, vol. i. p. 31.

[225] See Caledonian Mercury, 1723.

THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.

John Sinclair, called, in compliance with the custom of Scotland in
regard to the eldest sons of Barons, the Master of Sinclair, was
descended from the ancient family of Saint Clare, in France, on whom
lands were bestowed by Alexander the Third of Scotland. In early times,
the titles of Earls of Orkney and Caithness had been given to the first
settlers of the Saint Clares; and the possession of the islands of
Orkney and Shetland had been added to certain royal donations, by a
marriage with an heiress of the sirname of Speire. One of the Sinclairs
had even borne the dignity of Prince of Orkney; but this distinction was
lost by an improvident member of the house of Sinclair, called William
the Waster; and the prosperity of his descendants was due only to the
favour of James the Sixth, who created Henry Sinclair, of Dysart in
Fife, a Baron.

The family continued in honour and estimation, until the subject of this
memoir, John, brought upon it disgrace, and incurred to himself lasting
self-reproach.

The Master of Sinclair was the eldest son of Henry, seventh Lord
Sinclair, and the representative, therefore, of an honourable family.
But it was his fate to forfeit his birthright, not so much by his
adherence to an ill-fated cause, as by the violence and brutality of his
own temper and conduct.

He was, at an early age, engaged in the military profession, and bore
the commission of Captain-Lieutenant in Preston's regiment under the
great Marlborough. At the battle of Wynendale, fought on the
twenty-eighth of September, 1708, the events which stamped the future
character of the Master of Sinclair's destiny occurred.

Two brothers of the name of Schaw, Scotchmen, of an ancient race, and
ancestors, collaterally, of the present family of Shaw-Stewart of
Renfrew, had commissions also in Preston's regiment. These unfortunate
young men were of the chief family of the Schaws, or Sauchie, who had
flourished since the reign of Robert the Second.

By that singular coincidence which sometimes occurs, and which seems to
stamp certain races with misfortune, the Schaws had already been nearly
exterminated in feudal times by the violence of a neighbouring clan, the
Montgomeries of Skellmorlie; and had been preserved from total
destruction by what seemed to