Cleaning up William (St Clair) Sinclair Ist of Rosslyn's branch

Question

On 22 Sep 2022 Amy (Crawford) Gilpin wrote on St_Clair-21:

Beginning with this profile, on behalf of the Scotland Project, I will be working through the generations to untangle, clean up, and merge duplicated profiles. This profile currently has three wives attached. Amicia has been sourced and is attached to the correct profile but I believe the two additional wives are a duplicate of each other and may not belong as a spouse of this individual. Please discuss suggestions, comments/concerns in the comments for the appropriate profile or on the G2G post.

Answer 1

Perhaps you might wish to contact Malcolm Ian Sinclair, Earl of Caithness and Chief of Clan Sinclair, to see what the family uses as its genealogy, since he is supposedly a descendant of this William. 

https://www.clansinclairusa.org/chief.html

I am also supposedly a descendant, through a very circuitous path. My membership in the Clan Sinclair Association, though, is based on my grandmother whose maiden name was Woolley, which is a dependent family  of the clan.

Comments

Thanks, David.  I've looked at the website, which provides a lot of good information and some new sources to look at.

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I am also a member of the Clan Sinclair Association. I am a Sinclair through my father’s mother. You beat me to the CSA advice. 

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The Clan Sinclair Association website is one of the most informative around, and the Chief certainly is involved with Sinclair associations around the world. I suspect he will find a way to help!

Commit thy work to God!

Answer 2

Hi Amy

You don't want to back up one generation and unlink William Sinclair from parents who are almost certainly incorrect?

For instance, he isn't named in French sources as the son of Eleonore de Dreux and her second husband, Robert de Chaumont or de Saint-Clair, Seigneur de Saint Clair.  Although not a totally reliable source for the medieval period - see Anselme's  Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France .. vol. 8, p. 895

A better source that at least seems to be mentioning primary sources, only names one son Robert, who died before his father about 1260. This is Revue héraldique, historique et nobiliaire, Volume 3, pp. 466-468

French sources also don't mention Robert de Chaumont/de Saint-Clair in relation to a Barony of Rosslin.

If William had been their son, then he would have been the only surviving son, at least of his father, and there seems to be no evidence in French or Scottish sources, that he made any claim to the lands he would have inherited.

There also appear to be a number of people having the name Sinclair/Saint Clair prior to William.in the People of Medieval Scotland (POMS) Database so there doesn't seem to be any reason to connect him back to a French version of the name, as perhaps there might be if he was the first to use the name Saint Clair.

With no reliable sources confirming that he is their son, it just appears to be that at some point an attempt was made to give the Sinclair family a royal genealogy for which there is no evidence.

Comments

I'm just getting started on my own research of this family, but I'm inclined to agree, John.  I think that there has been quite a lot of confusion among the numerous Williams and Henrys in this family, not to mention the errors in dates.  Thank you for the additional sources to look at.

Edited to add:  The source cited by Balfour Paul, "Genealogie  of  the  St.  Clairs  of  Roslin" begins with a William much earlier than the one represented in this profile.

Answer 3

The Sinclair of Rosslyn family *never* spelt their surname St. Clair. That was the Herdmanstoun family who later became Lords St. Clair.