himself with great energy into the organisation of the elementary education work done by the church, and was the moving spirit in the negotiations between the church and the government which ended in the educational concordat of 1850 respecting the allocation of government grants to elementary schools. Bishop Blomfield heartily supported Sinclair, whom he made in 1839 one of his examining chaplains, in 1843 vicar of Kensington, and in 1844 archdeacon of Middlesex. The two latter offices Sinclair filled until the end of his life. At Kensington he subdivided the huge parish, and built the new parish church of St. Mary Abbott's. In 1853 he went to the United States on a mission from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He acted also as secretary of the Diocesan Church Building Society, which became, under Bishop Tait, the Bishop of London's Fund. Sinclair died unmarried at Kensington, after a short illness, on 22 May 1875. He was the author of many sermons and charges, of several minor works, and of ‘Dissertations vindicating the Church of England,’ 1836; ‘The Life and Times of Sir John Sinclair,’ 1837; ‘Vindication of the Apostolical Succession,’ 1861; and ‘Letters and Reports on National Education,’ 1861.
[Churchman, 1891, pp. 294, 352; Guardian, 26 May 1875; Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1874; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886.]
SINCLAIR, OLIVER (fl. 1537–1560), Scottish general at Solway Moss, was the second son of Sir Oliver Sinclair of Roslin [see under Sinclair, William, third Earl of Orkney, and first Earl of Caithness]. Henry Sinclair [q. v.], bishop of Ross, and John Sinclair (d. 1566) [q. v.], bishop of Brechin, were his brothers. He was a member of the household of James V, and is mentioned in the treasurer's accounts in June 1537 as receiving 120l. to pay the king's gentlemen with, and in July as receiving 20l. in ‘complete payment of his livery clothes’ (note by David Laing in Knox's Works, i. 88). On 14 June the king conceded to him and his wife, Catherine Bellenden, the lands of Pitcairnis (i.e. Pitcairn) in the county of Perth (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1513–1546, No. 1743). According to Lindsay of Pitscottie he was, after the fall of the Douglas family, appointed governor of Tantallon Castle on the coast of Berwick, and on 6 Oct. he received at the king's command a grant for the repair of the castle (note by Laing in Knox's Works, i. 88). He is referred to by Knox as in 1540 ‘a pensioner of the priests,’ and one of the chief in ‘pressing’ and ‘pushing’ the king in his ‘fury’ against the reformers (Works, i. 67). On 3 Sept. 1541 he strongly opposed in the privy council the proposal that James should go to meet his uncle in England, and in August 1542 he came to Jedburgh and seized Sir Robert Bowes, whom he carried a prisoner to Edinburgh (Hamilton State Papers, p. 166).
When at the close of the year the king resolved on a raid into England, he secretly determined that Sinclair should be appointed lieutenant-general. The choice is somewhat unaccountable, for Sinclair, though descended from an illustrious line, was not himself of sufficiently high rank to entitle him to command the higher nobles. It has been attributed to mere favouritism, but it is probable that the king cherished a high opinion of Sinclair's abilities, while he may have thought that his selection was the least likely of any possible one to occasion jealousy. If so, it was not justified by the result, although no other choice might have materially altered it. Letters were sent out to the southern nobles to meet the king on an appointed day at Lochmaben, ‘no man knowing of one another, neither yet did the multitude know anything of the purpose until after midnight’ (Knox, Works, i. 85). Then the ‘trumpet blew and commanded all men to march forward and follow the king, who was supposed to have been in the host,’ but remained at Lochmaben (ib.) The Scots crossed the border into Cumberland, and just before they engaged the enemy (25 Nov. 1542) Sinclair was hoisted on spears ‘upon men's shoulders, and there with sound of trumpet was he proclaimed general-lieutenant and all men commanded to obey him’ (ib. p. 86). But the proclamation seems rather to have caused confusion than inspired confidence. The Scots, now on the banks of the Esk, were apparently unable to agree as to how an attack was to be made, and, as Knox puts it, ‘every man called his own sloghorn’ (slogan) (ib. p. 87). In the rout that soon became general in the direction of Solway Moss, Sinclair, says Knox, ‘was without shot taken fleeing full manfully’ (ib. p. 88).
Sinclair arrived a prisoner at Newcastle on 3 Dec. (Hamilton State Papers, i. xcviii) and reached London on the 19th (ib. p. 335). While a prisoner in London he agreed to an article requiring the king of England to take the young princess of Scotland into his own hands and government (ib. p. 367), and also, with certain others, subscribed a secret article that in case of the young princess's death the king of England should take on him the government (ib. p. 368). He also promised the delivery of Tantallon Castle to Angus (ib.) On these conditions, and that
