(his choice as bishop having been confirmed by the pope) to turn aside at Berwick to ‘get himself arrayed,’ on condition that he did not proceed further into Scotland nor hold converse with the enemy (Cal. Doc. relating to Scotland, 1307–57, No. 301). In 1317 he greatly distinguished himself by his gallant repulse of an English force which had landed at Donibristle in Fife. Already five hundred cavalry under the sheriff had been put to disgraceful flight, when the bishop, who was then residing at Auchtertool, put himself at the head of sixty of his servants and rallied the fugitives. ‘Turn,’ he said, seizing a spear from a soldier, ‘turn, for shame, and let all who love Scotland follow me.’ His words and action were effectual; and the English were driven back to their ships with a loss of five hundred men (Fordun, Chronicle). Bruce, on learning his feat, declared that Sinclair should be his own bishop, and as the king's bishop he was henceforth known. He seems, however, to have crowned Edward Baliol in 1332. The Dunkeld register gives his death 27 June 1337.
[Vitæ Dunkeldensis Eccles. Episcop. in the Bannatyne Club, 1831; Keith's Scottish Bishops; Fordun's Chronicle; Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, 1307–57.]
SINCLAIR, Sir WILLIAM, third Earl of Orkney and first Earl of Caithness (1404?–1480), chancellor of Scotland, born about 1404, was the only son of Henry Sinclair, second earl of Orkney [q. v.], by his wife Egidia or Giles Douglas, daughter of Sir William Douglas of Nithsdale, and of the Princess Egidia, a daughter of Robert II.
Earl William succeeded about 1418, his father being then dead (Andrew Stuart, History of the Stewarts, p. 449). In 1421 the earl was named as a hostage for James I (then a prisoner in England), who desired to visit Scotland, and on the king's release in 1424 Sinclair met him at Berwick. He was one of the assize who condemned Murdac Stewart, second duke of Albany [q. v.], and his sons to death in 1425, when he was doubtless of age. He appears also about this time to have made claim to the earldom of Orkney, a Norwegian fief which was held by his fathers. In 1420 Eric, king of Norway, had committed the earldom after the death of Earl William's father, during the young earl's minority, to Thomas Tulloch, bishop of Orkney, as a trust to be delivered up to the king when required. Later, the trust was conferred on David Meyner or Menzies of Weem, who between 1423 and 1426 was charged with many acts of oppression, among others his detention of the Earl William's rents, and his refusal to set the public seal to a testimony of the earl's right. The earl apparently visited Eric's court, but did not receive formal investiture of the earldom of Orkney until 1434. The terms of his tenure were similar to those required of his grandfather, Henry Sinclair, first earl of Orkney [q. v.], and he acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Norwegian king, promising to hold for him the castle of Kirkwall (Torfæus, Orcades, &c., 1715, pp. 178–83; cf. Oppressions in Orkney and Zetland, Maitland Club, App. i.).
The earl was high admiral of Scotland in 1436, and commanded the fleet which bore the Princess Margaret of Scotland to France to be married to the Dauphin (Fordun, Scotichronicon, ed. Goodall, ii. 485). According to Father Hay, the earl was gloriously apparelled and magnificently attended, and received the order of St. Michael from the French king. He was summoned to Bergen on 24 June 1446 to take the oath of allegiance for the Orkneys to Christopher, king of Norway, and it seems probable that to this date belongs the well-known diploma, attested by Thomas Tulloch, bishop of Orkney, setting forth the earl's pedigree. The instrument was drawn up by the bishop and his canons, with the lawman, nobles, and people of Orkney, assembled in the church of St. Magnus, in presence of the earl, in May or on 1 June of a year hitherto uncertain, but held by some to be 1446, a date corroborated by the summons referred to (cf. Miscellany of the Bannatyne Club, iii. 65–85). In this year also (Chalmers, Caledonia, ii. 764) he began the foundation of the collegiate church of Roslin, for the residence of a provost, six prebendaries, and two singing boys. The chapel of this church still remains to attest the wealth and taste of the founder, and, though not completed as originally designed, it forms one of the most beautiful examples of church architecture in Scotland.
In 1448 the earl joined with the earls of Douglas, Ormonde, and others, in repelling an English invasion, and was created Lord Sinclair apparently in the following year (Fœdera, xi. 253). In 1454 he was appointed chancellor of Scotland in succession to William, lord Crichton [q. v.] When the king in 1455 resolved to put down the power of the Douglases, the chancellor took an active part, and personally superintended the transportation of a ‘great bombard’ from Edinburgh to Threave Castle in Galloway. In the same year he received the earldom of Caithness in exchange for his lordship of Nithsdale, and in 1456 his town of Roslin, probably formed by the masons who worked
