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X JOHN, 10th Lord Sinclair

This Lord was an active royalist, taken prisoner in 1651, and detained in prison till 1660. He constantly figures in important passages of State. Balfour in his Annals has many references to this baron: -

1633 June 19. He is enumerated as one of the Lords in the order and solemn riding of the Parliament held by King Charles at Edinburgh, 1639 March 22. Some of the chief covenanters, viz., the Earls of Rothes, Home, Lothian, with the Lords Zester, St.Claire, and Balmerino, went to Dalkeith, and with them a 1,000 commandit musqueteers took the regalia from Dalkeith to Edinburgh.

March 30. Sir James Arnott of Ferney, and some gentlemen with him, and 60 musqueteers, commanded by one St.Clair, marched from Couper, in Fife, to Darsey.

1639 April 19. He is one of the Lords Covenanters who subscribe to a letter addressed to the Earl of Essex. The letter is given in full.

August 31 He is one of the Lords present at the last Parliament held in the ancient form.

1641 He attends the Parliament at Edinburgh May 25, July 15, August 17, November 17, September 24. One of a committee to examine Sir Donald Mackdonald.

November 13. Made one of the Counsellors to His Majesty.

1644, June 5. The House appoints a Committee of 4 of each (of the three) estates anent the commission of Lieutenant-General to be given to the Earl of Callendar, and expedition of this present army towards England under his command. The four nobles were the Earls of Argyll and Lothian, Lords St.Clair and Kirkcudbright.

June 11. He is one of the nobles on the Committee for considering what may concern the army in Ireland.

June 19. He is named one of the three nobles on the Committee appointed to wait on the Earl of Calendar, Lord Lieut.-General.

June 21 - The House enacts that the Commissary, William Thomson, shall pay to the Lord St.Claire 20,000 merks, and to take his discharge on the same.

1645, January 7. In the Parliament at Edinburgh, Lord St.Clair being present, the Lord Borthwick protested that the calling of the Lords Zester and St.Clair should not prejudge him of his place of precedency.

February 21 - John Fletcher, in his depositions, attached the Lords Carnegie, St.Claire, and Kirkcudbright.

1646 January 22. The Lord St.Clair being examined, was by the House exonerated and discharged of that charge against him, for trincatting at Hereford with the enemy.

1648 April to April 1649. - Reference is made to levies of horse and foot under the Lords St.Claire, etc. 1650 May 18. He is one of those named in the Act passed anent excluding divers persons from entering within the kingdom, from beyond the seas, with his Majesty, until they give satisfaction to the church and state.

May 30. -A great many of the letters found in the Hall's frigate read in the House this day, amongst which there was one directed to his Excellency James, Marquess of Montrose, from Amsterdam, written all with the Lord St.Clair's own hand of the date 13 February 1650; wherein he writes to him that he was his humble servant, and would with all earnestness prosecute these ends proposed by his Excellency to install the King in his throne, etc., whom the rebels had detruded; and as for himself (he writes) he did evidently see that there was no other way to effectuate the same, but by the sword. And that the Scots treaty with the King was but a trap to catch him in; with many other opprobrious speeches against the kingdom. The House ordains this letter of the Lord St.Clair's to be marked, produced in Parliament, and to be used against him as a proof for drawing up a process of for faultrie against him.

1650 June 1 Bill exhibit to the House by the Laird of Lawers that he may have the Lord St.Clair's fine, formerly assigned to him by the Committee of Estates for payment to him of 58 thousand pound Scots, with the annuals thereto restand unpayed,

June 4. The House, by their act, assigns the Lord St.Claire's fine to Dr.Sharpe's wife, the Laird of Lawers, and M. James Campbell, provost of Dumbarton; what they want of that, to have it out of the first and readiest of the fines of Orkney and Caithness men, next after the payment of the Lord of Assin, and the officers. John, Lord St.Claire, is named in the Act against classed delinquents, 4 June 1650, and on the same day it is ordered that 800 bolls meal, and 200 bolls malt, and a 1000 lades of colles, out of the Lord St.Clair's coleheuch be laid up with all expedition in Edinburgh Castle.

1650 June 28. Lord St.Claire is one of many mentioned in a list of those to be removed from the King; with certification, if that they depart not, as said is, that they which are strangers, shall be without protection.

October 26. He is one of the signatories to "The Northern band and Othe of Engagement" sent by Middleton to L. General David Lesley.

Lord John married in 1631 the Lady Mary, eldest daughter of John, first Earl of Wemyss, by whom he had an only daughter -

  1. CATHARINE, Mistress of Sinclair, who married on the 15th April 1659, John, eldest son of Sir John St.Clair of Herdmanston, by whom she had, with two children who died unmarried -
    1. HENRY, next Lord Sinclair.
    The Mistress of Sinclair died during the lifetime of her father in 1666, and was followed to the grave by her husband, while her son was in minority.
John, 10th Lord Sinclair, died in 1676, and was succeeded in (titles and) estates by his daughter's son, Henry St.Clair, heir-male of Herdmanston and heir-general of Rosslyn and Orkney, thus uniting in his person the two great Norman lines of de Sancto Claro.

[from Burke's Peerage]

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