A Delinquent, Rotten and Unclean Member of Society

 

James Sinclair, Younger, of Latheron

"LATHERON, a parish at the southern extremity of the county Caithness, Scotland. It contains the post-office stations and villages of Berriedale, Lybster, Latheron, Dalbeath, and Swiney. It extends 27 miles N. from the Burn of the Ord, along the seacoast, and measures from 15 to 16 miles in breadth. The surface is a succession of hill and valley, and the boundary line with the county of Sutherland is very mountainous.”

https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/CAI/Latheron The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868.

Latheron was a quoad omnia parish  - a parish for civil and religious purposes. The Kirk Session had authority to act as a court.

James Sinclair, Senior, of Latheron, and heir-apparent of Dunbeath, married Frances Sinclair in 1728. They had one son, James, aka James Sinclair the Younger, of Latheron. The estate of Latheron, within the Latheron parish, originally belonged to Dunbeath and the Sinclairs of Dunbeath and was to be inherited by James, the Younger. But James Sinclair, Senior, in 1751 and 1753, with the consent of his son, sold his claim to Dunbeath to his brother-in-law William Sinclair of Freswick.

James Sinclair, Younger, of Latheron, was born about 1739, died in 1788 unmarried and as some references say ‘Without Issue’. Unfortunately for the many children of his issue, because they were in the kirk records as ‘Begot out of wedlock’, or ‘Begot in fornication’ James was easily able to both deny or evade his parental responsibilities. Which he did.

Where did he live? Scattered about the Latheron parish were a number of fine houses, the seats of noble families or other wealthy families. These families were the sponsors of the local minister and sometimes donated food or other goods to be distributed to the poor.

The number of ‘souls’ in the Latheron Parish in the first statistical Accounts of Scotland in 1791 was 4006 with 796 families. So whenever parishioners, such as Sinclair’s female targets, were required to make public repentance by standing before the congregation, usually in sack cloth, the witnesses were numerous.

https://www.caithnessarchives.org.uk/caithness/Latheron1715.htm

The parish church where the elders of the Kirk Session held many of their meetings, and where James was ordered to appear (and generally didn’t), was built in 1734 at the site of a much earlier church. The Sinclairs of Dunbeath had a vault in the south wall of the church and a burial Aisle retained in the south-east corner, in the ground below the18th century building. After his death in 1788, James the Younger was buried there.

Note: Re the kirk building, in 1822 a northern extension and a domed belfry were added to the 1734 building where the session meetings were held.

In 1772, with reference to James Sinclair, Younger, of Latheron, the elders of the Kirk session stated ‘It is their earnest desire that when the Presbytery take a full view of the heinousness of this man’s crimes that they shall authorise their Minister to excommunicate this Delinquent as a Rotten and Unclean member of Society.

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/virtual-volumes Latheron Kirk Session. Minutes 1734-1776. 1772, May 31, Pg 291

There are plenty of good reasons the elders felt that way. Over the next few blogs I will examine some of the trouble and misery James Sinclair Younger caused.

For the genealogy of the Sinclairs of Dunbeath and Latheron see the link below.

http://fionamsinclair.co.uk/genealogy/caithness/Latheron.htm

The church was gifted to the Clan Gunn Heritage Society in 1974 and is now a Heritage centre and a museum.

To be continued