Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster

Claimed with Vans Hathorn (q.v.) part of the compensation for the Argyle, Calder and Calder Ridge estates in St Vincent as co-trustees of the marriage settlement of Hon. Archibald Macdonald and Jane Campbell: Sir John Sinclair died in 1835 and the award was made to Hathorn alone.

1. Sir John Sinclair was an MP for a variety of Scottish constituencies between 1780 and 1811. Caithness landowner, President of the Board of Agriculture 1793-8, 1806-14 and 'from the mid 1780s he devoted himself to the "promotion of improvement", particularly in agriculture. He put his ideas into practice on his own estates, was a prolific author on economic, financial and political subjects...' Included initiating the First Statistical Account of Scotland (1791-9). His political career ended amidst financial difficulties and public ridicule. He was related by his second marriage to the Hon. Archibald Macdonald.  

2. The portrait of Sinclair is "after Sir Henry Raeburn (q.v.)", based on a work of c. 1810. It is in the National Portrait Gallery, (NPG 454). There is another portrait of Sinclair by Raeburn in the Scottish National Gallery. In it he is depicted as a regimental colonel in a uniform of his own design - he was evidently a deeply vain man - wearing trews of Gordon sett tartan. The Scottish National Gallery's note on Sinclair makes no mention of his connections to slave-owning.

T71/892 St Vincent claim nos. 492A & B (Argyle); 497A & B; 498A & B.

1. History of Parliament 1790-1820 online [accessed 29/03/2012].