dying in Edinburgh on 23 Oct. 1868, was buried at Harold's Tower, Thurso.
Sir George married, on 1 May 1816, Lady Catherine Camilla, sister of Lionel Tollemache, sixth earl of Dysart, and by her had three sons and three daughters. She died on 17 March 1863. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, John George Tollemache Sinclair, M.P. for Caithness, 1869–85.
Sir George was a voluminous writer for the press and author of many pamphlets. His earliest work, ‘Travels in Germany,’ in two volumes, describing his visits to the continent, was printed for private circulation. Only one copy is known to exist. Among his other publications were: 1. ‘Selections from the Correspondence carried on during recent Negotiations for the Adjustment of the Scottish Church Question,’ 8vo, Edinburgh, 1842. 2. ‘A Letter on the Church Question,’ 8vo, Edinburgh, 1843. 3. ‘Comme Charles X: an Essay on the Downfall of Louis-Philippe,’ 8vo, 1848. 4. ‘Observations on the new Scottish Poor Law,’ 8vo, Edinburgh, 1849. 5. ‘Letters to the Protestants of Scotland,’ 12mo, Edinburgh, 1852. 6. ‘Miscellaneous Thoughts on Popery, Prelacy, and Presbyterianism,’ 8vo, Edinburgh, 1853. 7. ‘Two Hundred Years of Popery in France,’ 12mo, Edinburgh, 1853. 8. ‘Popery in the First Century,’ 12mo, Edinburgh, 1855.
[Memoirs of Sir George Sinclair, by James Grant, 1870, with portrait; Times, 31 Oct. 1868; Foster's Members of Parl. of Scotland; Christian Observer, 1870, pp. 521–9; Advocates' Library Cat.; Blackwood's Mag. xli. 780.]
SINCLAIR, Sir HENRY, Earl or Prince of Orkney (d. 1400?), was the eldest son of Sir William Sinclair or Saint-Clair (d. 1330) [q. v.], by Isabel—sometimes called Sperra—daughter of Malise, earl of Strathearn, Caithness, and Orkney. According to Hay, he built the dungeon of Roslin and other walls thereabout, together with parks for fallow and red deer (Sinclairs of Roslin p. 17). In 1379 he and a certain Malise Sperra laid claim to the earldom of Orkney, and the claim was decided in Sinclair's favour by Hakon VI of Norway (‘Diploma of Thomas, Bishop of Orkney and Shetland, addressed to Eric, King of Norway, respecting the Genealogy of William Saint Clair, Earl of Orkney,’ in the Bannatyne Club Miscellany). He held a sort of sovereign power over the islands under the king of Norway, and maintained a royal state.
In 1391 the earl was engaged in the conquest of Frislanda (the Faroe Isles), and fell in with the Venetian voyager, Nicolo Zeno, who happened to be wrecked there and was rescued by the earl (whose name appears in the Voyages of the brothers Zeno as Zichmi). The earl received Zeno into his service as captain of his fleet. After the conquest of the Faroe Islands Nicolo Zeno and his brother Antonio assisted the earl in wresting Shetland from the usurper, Malise Sperra, who was slain during the contest. Nicolo died some time afterwards, but Antonio remained in the earl's service, and undertook to make a voyage to verify the reports of some fishermen regarding the discovery of a rich and populous country in the far west, whither they had been driven by a storm. Sinclair accompanied Antonio on the voyage, and after, in consequence of a fog, drifting south till they touched land at Icara (possibly Kerry in Ireland), they sailed across the Atlantic to a harbour somewhere in Greenland. There Sinclair remained some time after Antonio Zeno's return, ‘exploring the whole of the coast with great diligence.’ He died about 1400. He was married, first, to a daughter of the king of Denmark (Olaus V), by whom he had no issue; and, secondly, to Jean, daughter of Walter Haliburton, lord Dirleton, by whom he had a son Henry (d. 1418) [q. v.], who succeeded him.
[Hay's Genealogy of the Sinclairs of Roslin; Torfaeus' Hist. of Orkney; The Voyages of the Venetian brothers Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, in the Hakluyt Soc. 1873; Fiske's Discovery of America; Sinclair's Caithness Events.]
SINCLAIR, HENRY, second Earl of Orkney (d. 1418), admiral of Scotland, was eldest son of Henry, first earl of Orkney [q. v.] by his second wife, Jean, daughter of Walter Haliburton, lord Dirleton. He was taken prisoner at Homildon on 14 Sept. 1402 (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, iv. 403), but received his liberty before 28 May 1405, when he witnessed a charter at Linlithgow (Exchequer Rolls, iii. 634). When the king of Scotland resolved to send the young prince (afterwards James I) for greater security to France, the Earl of Orkney was chosen to convey him thither. The probability is that they set sail on 14 Feb. 1405–6 (Burnet's Preface to Exchequer Rolls, vol. iii.). On 13 March their ship was captured by an armed English merchantman, and the young prince was brought to London, where he was detained a prisoner. Burnet (ib.) supposes that the Earl of Orkney was not detained, but returned to Orkney on a safe-conduct which he and others had on 13 Jan. 1405–6 to go to England and return to Scotland; but the Sinclair who had this pass was not the Earl of Orkney, but Sir William Sinclair
