In the Latheron kirk baptism records of 1776 is the following entry:
1776, 2nd May: Mr James Sinclair of Latheron had a child baptised begot out of wedlock named Elizabeth.
Scottish life and character. When the bairn's asleep. Raphael Tuck.
There is no other mention of baby Elizabeth, who her mother was, nor if there were witnesses at the baptism. We know that James Sinclair Younger of Latheron has begot yet another child out of wedlock. We also know from previous kirk session records that the session elders usually dealt with such situations by calling both parties to front up, together if possible. They then interrogated them and required that they confess their sin and receive the humiliating punishment of standing in sackcloth before the congregation and/or paying an agreed fine to the ‘box’ to be distributed to the poor.
So why after so many fornications is there no record of the elders dealing with Sinclair in yet another case? I think the answer can be found in the previous story of Elspeth Mackenzie. Sinclair had a few tricks up his sleeve. First he craved more time in case, as he said, the woman changes her mind about the father of her pregnancy. The elders agree. But that was just a ruse for him to buy time as he later he admitted his guilt then said he would pay a fine as long as the matter was expunged from the records. So I think it is likely that since there is no record of the elders confronting the mother or father of baby Elizabeth that any further records of her begot out of wedlock may have been expunged.
This is the last record I have found relating to the children born out of wedlock that James Sinclair, Younger, of Latheron, was the father of. When in 1773 Elspet Mackenzie appeared before the session their records showed 12 delations against him and there was one more in 1776 when baby Elizabeth was baptised. So that’s at least 13 and since no more records are available to us there could well be more.
https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/virtual-volumes/ Latheron kirk session, Minutes (1764-1766) Baptisms Pg 181
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